Muslim advocates urge Ottawa to establish day of remembrance for Quebec City mosque shooting

Three years after a gunman stormed a mosque in Quebec City, killing six men and injuring 19 others, Muslim advocates say their communities are still feeling marginalized and urge Ottawa to designate Jan. 29 as a day of remembrance and action on Islamophobia.

As members of Parliament observed a moment of silence in House of Commons and expressed their condolences for the victims and their families, prominent Muslim advocates stressed that more has to be done to combat hate.

Amira Elghawaby, a board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said in the days and weeks after the tragedy, Canadians demonstrated their solidarity with Canadian Muslims, and specifically, the Quebec Muslim community. But since then, she said, the “sad normal” has returned, where Muslims are telling her they feel marginalized.

“We really don’t see the sort of groundswell of continued work necessary to address Islamophobia specifically. There have been calls to designate today as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia, nothing has come of that," she said.

Danielle Keenan, a spokeswoman for Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion, said there are discussions under way with the community to determine “how best to mark this tragic day” and the government will continue to “listen and work with them.”

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said his party would be supportive of working with Muslim groups to determine how best to mark the day.

“In terms of the specific terminology around the day, I think it’s probably important for the different groups that are looking at this to have discussions and nail down the specific proposal,” he said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party supports the call, saying the tragedy should never be forgotten.

"We all need to learn from the heartbreak in Quebec City on January 29th – to push back against hatred in our society and make sure the loss of innocent lives never happens again,” Mr. Singh said in a statement.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), supported by a number of advocate groups, initially called for the government to designate Jan. 29 as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia, but changed the name to a National Day of Action against Hate and Intolerance.

Mustafa Farooq, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said his organization “will always be looking” for the day of recognition, regardless of the wording.

The NCCM is also focused on bringing awareness to the impact hate continues to have on the families of the victims, said Mr. Farooq, adding that the council launched a campaign asking people to wear a green square to recognize the continued impact of the attack.

Quebec Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi was among the MPs who wore a green square. He began his statement by naming the six men who were killed: Azzedine Soufiane, Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti and Abdelkrim Hassane.

“This happened three years ago, but their families still live without their fathers, brothers and sons every single day. As a father of two young girls who sometimes accompany me to mosque, the fact that I and others have to look behind our backs means we have a lot more work to do.”

Mr. Farooq also raised Quebec’s law that bars certain public servants, including teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols at work, and was widely seen as targeting Muslims.

“We also can’t forget that if those six lived today, they’d be waking up in a Quebec where we have Bill-21,” he said. “The enshrinement of second-class citizenship into Quebec law is something that we cannot ignore right now.”

Ms. Elghawaby said in addition to recognition, advocates would like to see more robust hate-crime units in police forces, more frequent data on hate crimes from Statistics Canada and the ability for people to report hate crimes at local community centres.