Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a rally in memory of the victims of the Islamic Cultural Center shooting, in Quebec City, Canada, on January 29, 2018. (AFP Photo/Alice Chiche)
QUEBEC CITY, Canada — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Monday for his countrymen to stand up against Islamophobia and discrimination as he paid tribute tribute to six Muslims killed a year ago at a Quebec mosque.
Speaking at a rally in memory of the victims of the Islamic Cultural Center shooting, Trudeau lamented that acts of hate and discrimination have become “commonplace” or “even tolerated,” saying in parliament that “it should never have come to this point.”
“We cannot bring back those who perished, but we owe it to them to fight the very sentiment that caused their loss. We owe it to them to speak up and stand tall and explicitly against Islamophobia and discrimination in all its forms,” he said.
On January 29, 2017, just after the Sunday evening prayer, a gunman burst into the mosque in a residential neighborhood of Quebec City and opened fire on worshipers.
Canadian police officers respond to a shooting in a mosque at the Québec City Islamic cultural center on Sainte-Foy Street in Quebec city on January 29, 2017. (AFP/ Alice Chiche)
In addition to the six deaths, four of the victims suffered permanent disabilities in what remains one of the worst attacks on an Islamic place of worship in the West.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
In the aftermath, thousands of people, including Trudeau, gathered in Quebec City to express their support for the Muslim community.
The alleged perpetrator, Alexandre Bissonnette, was formally charged in October for the murder of six people and the attempted murder of another 35 worshipers in the mosque. His trial is scheduled to begin in late March.
Advertisement
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
