Ottawa commemorates Quebec mosque shooting anniversary with heartfelt vigil

By Jasmine Stamos

Tables at Ottawa City Hall were covered with scribbled notes and drawings on construction paper. Some had messages such as “We will remember you” and “May Allah bless you”. There were many hearts, mosques and maple leaves among the messages commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Quebec mosque shooting.

The Jan. 29, 2017 attack took place at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec just after evening prayer. The tragedy left six men dead and 19 injured. Some of the notes written by attendees of the City Hall remembrance vigil were addressed to the dead; others, to the families of those killed or the survivors of the attack.

Leila Nasr, communications coordinator at the National Council of Canadian Muslims, recalled how she felt the day of the shooting.

“I think like most people — and particularly many Muslim communities in the country, and not just Quebec — there was this huge sense of shock that something like this could happen on Canadian soil,” she said.

The council is pushing the federal government to formally designate the anniversary as national day of remembrance. Meanwhile, municipalities across the country have already taken action.

“We know that the councils of Markham, St. John and Hamilton have passed their own individual proclamations,” said Nasr. “We’ve been really encouraged by the community-level support.”

In Ottawa, Mayor Jim Watson officially declared a day of remembrance and action against hate and bigotry. He made an appearance at the City Hall commemoration, which was a joint effort by the NCCM, Somali Women’s Circle Network and and City for All Women Initiative. Organizations across the city have been holding their own vigils and commemorations.

Laura Grunder tearfully wrote notes at a table during the event. She said that she wanted to do something to remember the attack for a long time. Grunder, a former occupational therapist who is now a stay-at-home mother, said that awareness should be higher.

“It has to be people like me who get involved,” Grunder said. “I presume there’s lots of people like me who are white, who aren’t Muslim, who are just out there living their own lives, going to work, going to Starbucks, and walking by this City Hall and not knowing that this is going on inside.”

The event brought together many people from different walks of life. Overarching themes of the night were of unity and being an ally.

One of a series of speeches was from an OC Transpo bus driver who stopped verbal attacks against a Muslim woman on his bus. Another speech took the form of a spoken word poem from Nasser Chahbar, a second-year law student at the University of Ottawa and founder of the group Poetic Justice:

I wanna go back

I wanna go back to find the days

The days before things changed

The days before life rearranged, times, ways that led us astray

But the more I reflect I can’t help but think something’s wrong

Because when I sit back and think of what’s going on

I can’t help but draw a blank while contemplating my rank as a human being

Who’s supposedly living to taste this freedom that we supposedly have.

The notes and drawings are to be delivered to the families of the dead or survivors of the attack. They are tokens of remembrance and, for some, a promise to do better.