Muslims are at home in Quebec, Couillard reiterates

Capital marks anniversary of mosque attack

SHANGHAI •Itwas8p.m. on Jan. 29, 2017, and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard was at home in Saint-Felicien when he received a phone call about a shooting at a mosque in the provincial capital.

A gunman had entered the Islamic cultural centre of Quebec City during evening prayer and killed six men while injuring 19 other people, five seriously.

“I immediately assumed there was an element there of a hate crime, or a terrorist act, given the context,” Couillard said in an interview Thursday in Shanghai, China, where he is on a trade mission.

Couillard, speaking just days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting, said he quickly understood the immensity of what had happened.

“I realized it would be major, not just for Quebec, for Canada, but also that it would have ramifications beyond our borders,” he said. “I absolutely needed to reassure the population.”

He headed to Quebec City that night and held a news conference.

“It seemed to me excessively important to send a message to all Quebecers, first to Muslim Quebecers, who are certainly still traumatized today,” he said.

“And the words I chose told them they were at home “There isn’t a kind of racism that is better or worse than another,” says Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard. here, and I think that message needs to be repeated today.”

The premier reiterated in the interview he opposes a Canadian Muslim organization’s call for the federal government to designate Jan. 29 — the anniversary of the shooting — as a national day against Islamophobia.

Couillard said the state shouldn’t pick and choose which minority groups on which to focus when it comes to discrimination.

“I think it’s preferable to mobilize around a day or a week of action, as is often done, to tackle racism and discrimination of all kinds,” he said. “There isn’t a kind of racism that is better or worse than another.”

And on that point, Couillard said he doesn’t believe Quebec is worse than other societies or that Quebecers are more racist than others.

He did say Quebecers might be more “passionate” on the identity question.

The one-year anniversary of the shooting will be commemorated over four days, beginning Friday.

Events include a seminar, a film screening, an open house at the mosque where the tragedy occurred, and a vigil Monday evening. the office and gave my recommendations due consideration.”

Kendall was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2005 for his contributions to public health and harmreduction practice including the distribution of needles. He was at the helm of prevention policies for AIDS and HIV, which spread through drug users sharing needles, especially in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

He was also among those who called for a supervised injection site in the city and championed the use of medical-grade heroin to treat addiction as Vancouver became the first city in North America to adopt a European model aimed at reducing overdose deaths.

Kendall’s departure will cap a career of over 40 years in public health, which included health-officer positions in Toronto and Victoria.

Health Minister Adrian Dix called him “one of the most extraordinary public servants the province has ever had.”

Dix said Kendall’s report in 2002 on Indigenous health played a role in creating the First Nations Health Authority, still the only one of its kind in Canada.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, who has been the province’s deputy public health officer since 2014, said she has “very big