# Nathalie Provost

Nathalie Provost is a Canadian engineer who became known as a gun control advocate after surviving being shot during the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre. She and other survivors founded the PolySeSouvient gun-control advocacy group, for which she served as a spokesperson. She has continued as an activist for gun control and to reduce violence against women. From 2017 to 2019 Provost served as vice-chair of the Government's Canadian Firearms Registry, but resigned because of belief they were not strong enough. She works as an engineering civil servant for the government of Quebec. With Provost's permission, Canadian author Louise Penny featured her as a character in her 2022 novel A World of Curiosities.

## Biography

Provost was born in 1965 or 1966. She was a 23-year old mechanical engineering student at École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1989. On 6 December of that year, Marc Lépine, armed with a rifle, interrupted a lecture, shot the ceiling, and ordered the approximately 50 male students to leave the room. Nine female students, including Provost, remained. Lépine told the women he was there to fight feminism; Provost responded that they were students, not activists. Lépine shot the women, killing six and injuring three, including Provost. She received four gun shots to her head and leg, and cautioned her fellow injured students to play dead. The gunman continued to other floors, killing a total of 14 women, including one staff person, and wounding 10 others, plus four men.$^{:30}$ This was the deadliest mass murder in modern Canadian history until the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks. At the end, Lépine shot himself, committing suicide. Provost returned to her studies one month later. She completed her bachelor's degree in 1990, and earned her master's degree at the same university.
Provost works as an engineer in the civil service for the Government of Quebec. In 2022 Provost received an honorary doctorate degree from École Polytechnique. The university credited her for her “remarkable achievements, driven by uncommon determination and social values, [and] for the example of audacity that she embodies for the new generation of engineers in Quebec, in Canada and around the world.” She has four children. She has had to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the attacks. In 2022, writer Louise Penny sought and obtained Provost's permission to include her as a character in her novel A World of Curiosities.
After the attack, Provost embraced the feminist label, describing it as a "beautiful title." With other survivors of the attack, she formed the gun-control advocacy group PolySeSouvient, and became one of the two spokespersons. In 2009, she advocated to retain the Canadian Firearms Registry, opposing plans that were eventually implemented by the Government of Stephen Harper in 2012. In 2017, Provost was appointed as vice-chair of the Canadian Government's Canadian Firearms Registry; she resigned in 2019, citing dissatisfaction with what she described as the government's timid approach to gun control. In 2021, she urged federal politicians to reject firearms regulations proposed by the Liberal government, which she considered to be too weak. In 2022, Provost denounced the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights for using the discount code "POLY" for its online sales. Her complaints prompted a barrage of online abuse, including sexual and violent threats.