On February 8th, Alexandre Bissonnette was sentenced to 40 years in prison before being eligible for parole for the murder of Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Abdelkrim Hassane, and Azzedine Soufiane, and the attempted murder of 35 other worshippers, in the attack at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec (CCIQ) on January 29, 2017.
Hate crimes targeting Canadian Muslims increased 151% in 2017. The data released by Statistics Canada on November 18, 2018 indicated a significant increase in hate crimes against most racial, religious and other minority groups. Two year later, Canadians are still reeling from the terrorist attack in Quebec that claimed six lives and injured 19 others when Alexandre Bissonnette opened fire on worshipers in a Quebec City mosque on January 29, 2017.
On January 29th, 2017, six Muslims were murdered at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, a mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of Quebec City, Canada.
Six people were killed including Ibrahima Barry (aged 39), Mamadou Tanou Barry (aged 42), Khaled Belkacemi (aged 60), Aboubaker Thabti (aged 44), Abdelkrim Hassane (aged 41) and Azzedine Soufiane (aged 57)
Ryan Slobojan is the founder of the Push Back the Darkness initiative aimed at encouraging all Canadians to place a light in their windows at 8 pm on Tuesday, January 29th in commemoration of the victims of the Quebec Mosque Attack and as a sign of commitment to "push back the darkness" of ignorance and hate in Canada. The initiative has also helped to support the organizing of vigils in cities across Canada.
Ryan and his daughter Elisabeth had the chance to visit the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec on January 18th.
My name is Ryan Slobojan, and I live in Pickering, Ontario. When I first heard about the attack on the mosque in Quebec City on January 29th 2017, I was devastated.