5 years after fatal mosque attack, Quebec City Muslims call for CAQ government to do more to end Islamophobia

Sitting in the same prayer room of a Quebec City mosque where he was injured in a deadly shooting almost five years ago, Saïd Akjour says he remembers the horrific attack as if it happened yesterday.

"I can still see Aboubaker Thabti," said Akjour, pointing to the spot where he last saw his fellow worshipper. "I can still see Azzedine Soufiane."

One by one, he listed the names of all of the men killed at the Islamic Cultural Centre on Jan. 29, 2017: Mamadou Tanou Barry, Abdelkrim Hassane, Ibrahima Barry and Khaled Belkacemi.

At a news conference Thursday at the newly renovated mosque, Akjour and other community members outlined details of the commemorative events scheduled for Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the attack. 

The co-founder of the Islamic centre, Boufeldja Benabdallah, said the commemorations are usually simple. However, this year, the community is calling for more government action to fight Islamophobia, including changing parts of Quebec's controversial secularism law, known as Bill 21, and toughening Canada's gun control laws. 

"We need to take action, and action is the fight against discrimination and systemic racism; it is the fight against guns that kill our children, our adults," Benabdallah said. 

On Wednesday, leaders of the mosque renewed their calls for a Canada-wide ban on handguns. They sent letters to the federal and Quebec governments, urging all sides to make sure that any new gun control legislation is applied across the country.

The federal Liberal government had planned to give municipalities the legal right to ban guns on their territories, but that bill never passed.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, Benabdallah and other Muslim leaders asked the government "to stop efforts to absolve the federal government of responsibility for the handgun issue."

The six victims in the 2017 mass shooting were shot with a 9mm Glock pistol over a period of about two minutes. The shooter had at least five other weapons, including three assault rifles. All the weapons in his possession were acquired legally.

"It is absolutely harmful and shameful to note that in five years, nothing has been done to change the circumstances that allowed this individual to acquire or keep such an arsenal," mosque leaders wrote.

"In other words, an individual with the same profile could today own the same weapons and accessories."

While assault weapons were banned federally as of May 2020, those that were in circulation before that date remain in the hands of owners while they await details of a federal buyback program.

Pointing to another targeted, deadly attack against a Muslim family in London, Ont., last year, Benabdallah said Thursday that the fight against Islamophobia is far from over nationwide.