Montreal - May 27, 2022

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on the National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action against Islamophobia:

Pakistani Canadian author, filmmaker, and creative producer @studentasim has developed an online platform to combat Islamophobia by showcasing the voices of Muslims and their allies.

The victims of Jan 29th, 2017 attack on the Quebec City mosque perished as they stood to pray.

Like all of the victims of the Quebec mosque shooting, Mamadou Barry's death not only impacted his family-leaving behind a widow, two young orphans, and his recently widowed mother who had just come to live with her son in Quebec City- it crushed the dream of access to clean drinking water for his village in the West African country of Guinea.

Barry was raising funds to install a 100-meter-deep well in his village, located outside of Labe, Guinea's second-largest city.

Salam friends,

A year ago, I sat with Aymen Derbali at the third anniversary of the Quebec City Mosque shooting.

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.

Three years ago, on a cold night, our hearts broke when a man entered the Quebec City Mosque, and began to fire on our congregants on January 29.

Russian troll activity on Twitter aimed at influencing public opinion has attracted a lot of attention in the United States and other western democracies. Canadians may feel it’s not an issue here. But a recent examination of Twitter data suggests there are reasons to be concerned as the country heads into a federal election.

It’s been a little over two years since the terrorist attack on the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec. Since then, many Muslim communities have been making efforts to heal.