It's been one year since the Le Pen groupie Alexandre Bissonnette burst into a Quebec City mosque and opened fire on a group of helpless worshippers.
He killed six people, and wounded nineteen others. It was a horrifying massacre and a real nightmare.
But what I find almost as disturbing, is what happened afterwards.
When all that solidarity turned to indifference.
One year on, there are troubling signs. Community members say that the initial reaction of Quebecers and Canadians — a very public display of sympathy and tolerance toward the Muslim community — has not endured.
“Just after (the attack), there was a great outpouring of sympathy and empathy. We’d get on the bus and people would smile and be friendly. That fizzled out and it sort of went back to the same,” he said. “It took, perhaps, a couple of months.”
And although I hate to say it, I'm not surprised.
For Quebec City is the coldest place I have ever known, and not just because of the icy wind that can come howling down the St Lawrence, and freeze you to the bone.
But also because it's the Con base in Quebec, a place full of frosty white civil servants, who measure out empathy with a dropper. The pur lain of the pur lain who should know better but don't.
A city full of racist radio show hosts who spend all their time bashing the diversity of Montreal, portraying it as a dark and threatening Babylon. And are always whipping up hatred against those who are different, especially Muslims.
So the pig's head some beastly bigot left outside the mosque seven months before the massacre should have been a warning...
And the question I have been asking myself recently, is whether what happened in Quebec City will serve as a warning for the rest of us.
For as I wrote yesterday, this country is suffering from an epidemic of hatred.
Hate crimes are soaring and becoming more violent.
This porky bigot is our warning...
And unless we crack down on him and all the other bigots poisoning this country.
Sooner or later they will kill our Canada...
Remember the dead.
And embrace the survivors..
17 comments:
I have to admit I am at heart a silly hats bigot. From Priests wearing dresses, to Sikhs wrapped in silk, I think its silly and has no place in a serious society. So if you tell me the Charter of Rights gives you the ultimate privacy of never having to appear in public, I say baloney.
IMHO for a tragedy a year ago, this one has not been shunned. I agree with the Quebec law banning religious decoration in public service. It should be in every province. Lets ban things that keep us apart were possible.
The elephant in the room, of course, is Trump, and his bigotry dialed up to 11 and exported to every corner of the globe that emboldened the mass-murdering terrorist in Québec. (NB: He is a terrorist, regardless of what the semantics say or what he is charged with. Considering the rise of the Internet and lone-wolf radicalism, Canada should change their laws so that the definition of terrorism doesn't require affiliation with a particular group. Trudeau called it terrorism and, by the dictionary definition, he was right. But the dictionary definition needs to be brought in line with the law, or rather, vice versa.)
As for Trump, he is as much a catalyst and exacerbating factor as he is symptom of a far greater epidemic that didn't start with him, and won't end when he leaves office one way or another. There is a global war of hatred against Muslims that's being ignored for the most part: the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the atrocities in Yemen by "America's great ally" Saudi Arabia, and the bigliest elephant that nobody wants to address, which is apartheid Israel's final solution against Palestinians and the American-aided Anschluss of their land. (Which is really just a land grab by a colonialist power like any other, but carries with it an extra helping of religious fervor by the suicide cult of Christian Dominionists obsessed with deranged fantasies of bringing about the apocalypse. Kicking the hornet's nest with Iran is how they might very well get their wish.)
You're not supposed to use Nazi terminology to refer to Israel's actions for obvious reasons. But when Bibi himself has a son who is openly embraced by neo-Nazi websites and organizations, and Bibi himself gleefully collaborates with none other than the Orange Führer — and has actual Holocaust survivors calling him out for his own bigotry against African refugees (from countries that Bibi's pal Trump called "shitholes") — all the old rules may as well get thrown out the Overton window. Not to mention, Canada's own hypocritical hardliner Ezra Levant has said and published the most atrocious screeds against other victims of the Holocaust — the Romani in particular — that he himself would run screaming to the OHRC about if they were said about Jewish people (and yet, he nevertheless opted to employ Gavin McInnes as a "contributor," who actually went to Israel and made a disgusting video called "10 Things I Hate About Jews"). But Levant's primary target of scorn is almost always Muslims, either because he legitimately sees them as an existential threat to Israel's ethno-nationalist government and his own personal (in)security, or because he's just a shameless, craven charlatan who figures he can make a quick buck pandering to the lowest common denominator and jumping aboard the bandwagon of the Islamophobia industry. Or, most likely, a heaping helping of both.
Once again, as in the 1930s, the world turns a blind eye to a global genocide until it's almost too late. Holocaust Remembrance Day was this past week, and if we really want to live up to #NeverAgain, then #NeverAgain means #NeverAgain for anybody. Hate is hate, and it needs to be stamped out everywhere it rears its ugly head.
Multiculturalism has failed. It causes tension in society. It was an experiment to begin with and this is one of the many tragedies it has caused.
A growing Muslim population in Quebec. Duplessis must be turning in his grave.
Duplessis was the antithesis of secularism, he was a Catholic-fundie semi-fascist.
I don't see what francophone immigrants of Muslim backgrounds have to do with "multiculturalism".
Hi Steve...As you know I'm an atheist, and I insist that human rights come before religious rights, especially when it comes to the rights of women and LGBT people. However that said, I don't care what others choose to believe, or what they wear on their heads or wherever. It's none of my business, it shouldn't be your business either. And boasting about being any kind of bigot is not right either, especially not on an anniversary like this one...
Hey lagatta did you see that new poll saying that the CAQ is probably going to form a majority government here? Guess Quebec Solidaire isn't too popular after all eh comrade? When your base is comprised of gullible students and antifa you can only get so far.
Hi Jackie, yes Trump has exacerbated the latent bigotry in our society, and made people feel it's OK to say what once they didn't dare. And it's a sad commentary on the state of humanity that religious hatred is still causing massacres and massive suffering all over the world, almost twenty years into the 21st Century. I believe it was H.L. Mencken who said that religion is the greatest fomenter of hatred the world has ever seen. And he's still right. I saw a documentary on PBS yesterday on the plight of the Rohingya refugees, and some of the stories they had to tell could have been right out of the Nazi era. Women raped, babies thrown into rivers, or having their heads smashed against the ground etc etc. And there's what happened in that mosque in Quebec City, which left 17 children without fathers for absolutely no sane reason. And still some people don't get it and a professional bigot like Ezra Levant is allowed to spread his hate unhindered. Oh well, as I said, today is a day to remember the dead, and tomorrow the struggle continues....
I dont care what people do in the bedroom. What people do in public is public. We have so many annivery to mourn, so lets stop saying you cant say anything about this date, its not hate its real. In Canada we have maybe one hate crime every ten years. Down south thinkaboot it,
Hi anon11:32 AM....No I'm afraid you've got everything backwards. First of all multiculturalism has not failed. It may be a little frayed along the edges, but it works well in most places, and it has helped keep us a mostly peaceful society. It's those who attack multiculturalism who are the problem. Secondly, who cares if Duplessis is spinning like a top in his grave? Quebecers had that little thing called the Quiet Revolution to get rid of his pernicious influence, and the dictatorship of the Catholic Church. i realize that some in Canada want to go back to the past, but it can't be done, so we should all try to live as happily as possible in the present...
Hi Lagatta...God almighty, in Spain they're debating whether to dig up the body of Francisco Franco and in this country some want to bring back Duplessis? I'm glad you didn't explain why some In Quebec consider multiculturalism to be a dirty word, or an attempt to degrade Quebec's status as a nation. I briefly considered doing that myself, but luckily the very thought made me want to collapse with fatigue...😉
Thank you Simon for taking some time to mark that tragic anniversary. Too bad so few others did. I guess Muslim lives are cheap, and as you said indifference is evil.
I think a fair number of people think of 'multiculturalism' as an attempt by Trudeau père to relegate the Québecois people to just another 'ethnicity'. But I don't want to get into that now, when it is our duty as human beings to show solidarity with human beings who were MURDERED simply because of their faith. I'm an atheist too, but it is none of my business what people believe unless they try to impose their beliefs on me.
Note that all those men were gainfully employed, in professional jobs (or one, as a small businessman much loved by many in Québec for the quality of his products), so the bigots can't drag out their "parasite" crap.
I haven't been a student for years, although I was an adult student and got master's at almost 40. And what is wrong with being an anti-fascist?
Québec solidaire really has members of all ages, and a growing number in the "regions", especially due to the campaign against pipelines and other petroleum-related infrastructure that risked to pollute some preserved areas and threaten our friends the belugas!
But this is not about QS or any other party, it is about human decency. How would you feel if your spouse or father was murdered for no reason?
Hi Steve....what are you talking about? Did you not read that story I linked to about how hate crimes have tripled in the last year. There are now hundreds of hate crimes reported every year, and if you read that National Observer story you'll also find out that the ones targetting LGBT Canadians are the most violent. Which is one more reason I have zero tolerance for bigots of any kind....
Hi anon...I wouldn't underestimate Quebec Solidaire. They might no win the next election, but with Liberals and the CAQ looking very old, they may have time on their side. Remember, demographics is destiny...
Hi Lagatta....don't bother arguing with that Con, he's just trying to get you going. And thank you for bringing the conversation back to The subject of my post, the innocents murdered a year ago...
Hi anon@3:44PM...you're welcome. Nothing I've ever written about Muslims has ever been popular with those who read this blog. But I don't care, I don't write to be popular. I just thought that a brutal massacre should be remembered, and that the indifference of some in my province is something that should be denounced. As Canadians we can do better...
Today is international Nijab day. I say blasphemy. Should we have international Mormon day where everyone wears magic underwear. Stop the madness of inclusive over logic Simon.
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