Muslims to have their own cemetery in Quebec City
QUEBEC — Muslims in Quebec City are going to have their own cemetery after all.
The cemetery will be located on a parcel of land of about 6,000 sq. metres the city is selling for about $270,000 plus taxes, Mayor Regis Labeaume and members of the Muslim community said at a news conference Friday.
It is expected to be ready this fall.
The news came just three weeks after a proposal aimed at setting up a Muslim cemetery in a town southwest of Quebec City was defeated in a referendum by a 19-16 margin.
Quebec City’s Muslims have been looking for a cemetery for two decades, but made a renewed push after they completed the payment for the city’s main mosque in 2011.
It was there last January that a gunman shot dead six men in the main prayer hall and injured 19 others. The bodies were sent overseas and to Montreal for burial.
The mosque’s Mohamed Labidi praised Labeaume for keeping his promise to forge ahead with plans for the cemetery.
“It’s a great day,” Labidi said. “It is a historic day for Quebec City. Today, we are reaping the benefits of 20 years of hard work.”
Boufeldja Benabdallah, interim co-ordinator of the cemetery
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Police are investigating after a female reporter was heckled with a notorious sexist slur while on camera in St. John’s, N.L.
Const. Geoff Higdon of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says they received a complaint Thursday that a CBC reporter was heckled as she reported from the annual St. John’s Regatta a day earlier.
Peter Gullage, executive producer for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador, said Friday reporter Carolyn Stokes was doing a lakeside interview. A young man ran up behind her and screamed the phrase — often abbreviated to “FHRITP” — as a friend recorded it, he said.
“It happened in full HD — the guy ran up to Carolyn and yelled it,” Gullage said. “From our point of view it’s workplace harassment.”
The phenomenon has plagued journalists in the U.S. and Canada since 2015, with one of the more high-profile cases involving a heckler screaming it at a reporter covering a Toronto FC soccer game.
Toronto’s CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt confronted several men about their use of the sexually explicit remarks while doing fan interviews. One of the men was fired (though later re-hired) by Hydro One after CityNews aired the video. In Calgary, police charged a man with a traffic offence in May 2015 after he hurled the same vulgarity at a CBC journalist.
Meanwhile, a man accused of shouting the same slur at another St. John’s news reporter last April entered a not guilty plea to a mischief charge Thursday. project, also welcomed the news.
“Earlier, Mr. Labeaume was praising the land and its beauty,” he said. “I told him, ’You’re going to push us to die earlier because we want to take advantage of the land.’ It’s just to say there is joy today and we are all going to die in peace and with respect.”
Benabdallah also stressed the importance of remembering those who died in the shooting in January.
“I’ll finish up with a fraternal thought for our six brothers who died in the tragedy last Jan. 29,” he said. “Today’s announcement will put a bit of balm on this tragedy.”