Thousands of people packed a convention centre in Quebec City today for the public funeral for three of the six men killed in Sunday night’s mosque shooting.
Ibrahima Barry, 39, Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, and Azzedine Soufiane, 57, were killed by a gunman who burst into the mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood just after the evening prayers and opened fire on the praying men.
The funeral service for the three other victims: Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, Khaled Belkacemi, 60, and Aboubaker Thabti, 44, was held in Montreal on Thursday.
All six men were fathers who left behind 17 orphaned children.
Ibrahima Barry worked for Quebec’s Revenue Ministry and was a father of four children aged 13, seven, three and two. His compatriot Mamadou Tanou Barry worked in information technology and was the father of two toddlers, aged three and 1½. Azzedine Soufiane, who ran a halal grocery and butcher shop, was a father of three.
Imam Hassan Guillet began the funeral service with a pledge that despite the violence and intolerance “our mosques will remain open, and our children will continue to learn and recite the Koran.”
“Our children will continue to be honourable citizens in this country, as you were,” Guillet said. “We have chosen this society, and we ask that this society choose us and welcome us.”
Gunman also victim: imam
Guillet blamed the shooting on Quebec’s toxic identity politics discourse “poisoned by journalists and politicians.”
The imam said he considered the alleged shooter Alexandre Bissonnette and his family among the victims of the tragedy.
“Alexandre, before being a killer, he was a victim also,” Guillet said. “Before shooting bullets into the heads of his victims, somebody planted ideas, more dangerous than the bullets, in his head.”
Bissonnette, 27, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder in connection with the attack, which also left 19 injured.
‘Multiple solitudes’
Guillet also blamed ignorance for the carnage.
Referring to the title of Hugh MacLennan’s novel about relations between French- and English-speaking communities in Quebec, Guillet said the province has gone from “two solitudes” to “multitude of solitudes.”
“We live side by side, but we don’t know each other,” he said.
The power of words
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, Leader of Quebec’s official opposition Parti Québécois Jean-François Lisée and Quebec City Mayor Régis Lebeaume also attended Friday’s funeral.
In his address, Trudeau said Canadians across the country have been deeply affected by the love and compassion that’s been voiced by Quebec City’s Muslim leaders.
Trudeau also urged politicians and the media to measure their words carefully, echoing a sentiment expressed earlier by Premier Couillard and by Imam Guillet.
“It’s more than time that the authors of this kind of speech, be they politicians or media personalities, take heed of the results of their words,” he said to applause.
“It’s up to all of us to defend the values that Canadians hold dear. All of us have a role to play every day in the fight against injustice and discrimination.”
With files from CBC News and The Canadian Press
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