‘Montreal is an inclusive space’
City hall ceremony honours victims of Quebec City mosque massacre
It was a message of solidarity and unity.
About 200 Montrealers from all faiths and backgrounds took part in a ceremony at city hall Monday in honour of the victims of the Jan. 29, 2017 shooting rampage in Quebec City.
The attack claimed the lives of six men — Ibrahima Barry, 39, Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, Khaled Belkacemi, 60, Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, Aboubaker Thabti 44 and Azzeddine Soufiane, 57 — and injured 19 others.
“It’s to say Montreal is a safe space. Montreal is an inclusive space, and we also want to honour the memory of the victims,” said Mayor Valérie Plante.
Plante was joined by two members of the opposition and a member of her own party to recite a poem of peace to begin the ceremony.
That was followed by a prayer for peace recited by leaders of Montreal’s Muslim, Jewish and Unitarian communities.
The ceremony was marked by the display of seven vases — one for each of the men killed and the seventh for the family of Aymen Derbali, who was left in a wheelchair after being injured while trying to stop the gunman. The vases were to stay in city hall for the day, and Montrealers were invited to write messages for the families of the victims.
Ève Torres, the co-ordinator of public affairs for Quebec for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said there was a strong message of hope sent out in the ceremony, and she hopes it can be a starting point for the public at large to speak out consistently against continued acts of Islamophobia within Quebec.
“After the attack, there was a wave of sympathy to the community, but it didn’t last much longer than two weeks,” Torres said.
She added that she was dismayed that both the media and politicians appeared to take these incidents lightly.
“We took heinous acts lightly, and it seemed like the public was fed up with hearing about racism,” she said. “We knew that this mosque in Quebec City was targeted by heinous acts in the past, but there were no political decisions taken to try to prevent these types of acts in the future.”
Sameer Zuberi, a representative of the Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association, said the attack was a tragedy, but one that also showed the strength of the community when it comes together in the face of such an event.
“This was a great tragedy for us,” Zuberi said. “What we saw was a coming together of Quebec society to say no to hate, no to terrorism in
What we saw was a coming together of Quebec society to say no to hate, no to terrorism in our land.
our land and no to Islamophobia. That was a great stand. Today, here and now, we see an echo of that.”
Zuberi also called for provincial and federal politicians to mark the anniversary as a day of action against Islamophobia.
Monday evening, several peaceful demonstrations against Islamophobia were held throughout Montreal.
Outside the Mont-Royal métro station, a small crowd gathered around large posters of the six victims’ faces and a banner that read “Refuse to forget. Reject Islamophobia.”
The shooting in Quebec, organizers said, was not an isolated event — many Muslims have reported being harassed or worse in the year since.
“Solidarity is what’s most important,” said activist Mary Ellen Davis, who helped plan the city-wide events, “but so is defining what the rising danger is.”