The Québec City mosque massacre, the worst mass murder to take place in a house of worship in Canadian history, was a shock to Canada’s multicultural utopia.
The Québec City mosque massacre, the worst mass murder to take place in a house of worship in Canadian history, was a shock to Canada’s multicultural utopia.
A local halal grocery store owner, a professor at Université Laval, three civil servants and a pharmacy worker were brutally killed on Jan. 29, 2017. The six men, originally from Morocco, Algeria and Guinea, were fathers, sons, husbands, and brothers.
Yet the rising Islamophobia in Canada had impacted Muslims long before this tragedy. And not surprising to many, the hatred has continued to rise.
Statistics Canada found hate crimes against Muslims in Canada grew 253 per cent from 2012 to 2015. It got even worse: police-reported general hate crimes shot up by 50 per cent in 2017 reaching a new all-time high. These numbers are largely driven by incidents targeting Muslims with the increases being driven mainly by events in Ontario and Québec.
