Five years after an attack at a Quebec City mosque that claimed the lives of six people and injured 19, survivors and Muslim community members will gather on Saturday to close off a week of events marking the tragedy.
Six vibrant portraits of the men killed in an attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City are adorning the walls of the mosque this weekend, as the community marks the five-year anniversary of the shooting.
Montreal, Canada – Four years have gone by since a gunman stormed a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, killing six people and injuring several others. But Boufeldja Benabdallah says the passage of time has not made the pain go away.
“It still feels like it was yesterday,” said Benabdallah, co-founder and spokesman of the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre, where the deadly attack took place on January 29, 2017.
Six men were killed in the rampage, which sent shockwaves across Canada and prompted mass vigils and promises from the highest levels of government to tackle Islamophobia and racism.
The attacker, Alexandre Bissonnette, pleaded guilty in 2018 to six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder and was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 40 years.