Canada's minister of justice has denounced the "disturbing reality of violence against women" in remembering the 15th anniversary of the killings at Montreal's l'École Polytechnique.

"As UNICEF has stated, discrimination against women is an injustice greater than apartheid," Irwin Cotler said in a statement on Sunday.

On Dec. 6, 1989, on the last day of term before the Christmas break, gunman Marc Lepine stormed an engineering class.

Rita Beiks and her son Beau place some fruit on top of a bench in memory of Anne-Marie Edward at a memorial service in Vancouver Sunday. Edward was one of 14 women who was murdered in Montreal. (CP photo)
Rita Beiks and her son Beau place some fruit on top of a bench in memory of Anne-Marie Edward at a memorial service in Vancouver Sunday. Edward was one of 14 women who was murdered in Montreal. (CP photo)

Lepine, 25, proclaimed he was getting even because feminists had ruined his life.

He ordered the men to leave, then opened fire on the women. When he left the room to continue the rampage, he was heard yelling, "I want the women."

Armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he killed 14 women and wounded 13 others, mostly women, before committing suicide.

Cotler said the struggle for women's rights – the struggle against violence against women – is a priority on the justice agenda.

"Recently, for example, we have taken important steps on this front to combat the trafficking of women and girls, both domestically and internationally," he said.

Memorials are held every year in cities across the country to mark the anniversary of the killings.

On Sunday, women from around Vancouver gathered at the women's monument in Thornton Park to remember the victims.