- (Bienvenue. Pour le français, appuyez sur le 1.)
(For English, press 2.)
- I've lived here for more than 20 years now
and I think it's time for me to maybe move on.
I felt that Quebec City was home for a long time.
But I don't know anymore.
- I'm 20 years old.
I've lived my whole life in Quebec City.
I was thinking about leaving Quebec because here
you don't feel welcome and people want to feel welcome.
- Life is really different.
I don't feel the way I used to feel before.
There is Islamophobia in Quebec.
We're not going to lie to ourselves and say
no people it doesn't exist... Yes, it does.
But 19 years ago, I decided to stay
and I'm not gonna let someone else change my decision.
The 29 of January 2017,
that's something that we can't ever forget.
I remember that that night I was home, with my family.
Even my husband and my son, they were here,
because they were supposed to go to pray and my husband said,
you know, I'm tired and we're just going to do our prayers
at home. And I was like, OK that's fine, good.
We got a call from my friend and she said
Something really, really bad is happening
at the mosque and me, bad for me, I thought of fire
or something, I don't know but I never thought that someone
could go to the mosque and start shooting people
and killing people. I couldn't just believe it.
- Most of the people who died, I knew them very closely.
I get very emotional because something tragic happened
which did not need to happen.
It will take time, it will take a long time to heal from it.
- I don't want to be recognized because my father is
one of the members of the administration council
of the mosque that was targeted.
Six or seven months after the attack,
someone lit on fire our car in the middle of the night.
The person who was responsible for the attack was a neighbor,
he lived like 3 houses away from my house.
I mean that's the kind of city we live in?
What hit me the most was like
when we announced it to the media,
someone said, my father
lit it on fire himself.
Well, that was particularly disgusting.
- January 29's tragedy, hum...
that was a turning point, but before that
I have noted
that things started
degenerating in society.
Muslims being targeted, some were insulted, assaulted,
with the hijab torn away.
Things that never happened before started happening.
The radio stations started nurturing that hate
and rejecting Muslims.
The atmosphere became very poisonous in Quebec City.
- Things began to change, I believe since 2013,
when the government tried to come up with this Chart of Value.
From that time, I felt that in our Quebec is not the same
that it used to be.
Le Parti Québécois had that project to not accept
a person wearing a religious symbol in the public function.
We're talking about the scarf, we're talking about the kippa,
we're talking about the cross and everything.
And it seems to me that they were talking
more about the Muslim women than anybody else.
I don't know, I felt it that way.
- I mean I feel like a second-class citizen
because our voices don't matter as much.
People say you have to integrate
but what they mean is you have to
dilute yourself in the culture that's already there,
you have to completely change yourself to fit
the person they want.
That's not integrating. Integrating means
participating in society, working, sharing with people
like normal human stuff, but still being yourself.
That's integrating, that's what most people do. So...
Integration is important but
complete assimilation,
that's not good for anybody.
(screaming)
(whistle)
- I have two children who were born and
raised here in Quebec City.
My son is a basketball player.
He likes Quebec City because that's the only place he knows.
The friends he has are from here.
It will be difficult for me to move away,
but there is a reality out there
and my feelings are mitigated in some way.
My personal experience is
similar to many others
who have been attacked and insulted in the street
for wearing a veil.
(screaming)
But I felt like being black, and wearing a veil,
was just at the top of... at the top of the top.
You know bringing together race and
the religious symbol was kind of just too much
to the eyes of many people.
In the beginning, I was not wearing a veil,
I started wearing it long after I came here.
The first time I started wearing it,
I felt so powerful that day, for some reason, I don't know why,
I was walking in the street
with pride and confidence.
I felt closer to God somehow
and that was very meaningful.
A woman who wears the veil wears it because
of convictions, religious convictions.
Nobody has asked me to put the veil,
nobody has imposed it on me,
I have decided to do that.
It is something between the person and God, and God only.
I turn on the lights.
I need to hand up the keys now.
Before I do that I need to make sure everything is taken
out of the apartment, every minute counts.
I turn the lights on.
So this is where I was last night until probably midnight,
trying to sort out all the paper,
the boxes, the stuff that was here.
Most of the stuff is
drawings that the kids did when they were in primary school.
All this stuff that I don't want to throw away.
They're souvenirs.
I need to keep this.
Quebec City is a great place,
there are great people out there.
I will miss you very, very much
the good moments I have shared with people.
The Derbali family is the family of one of the victim
of the January 29 attack
who has survived actually and who is in a wheelchair
for the rest of his life.
It's difficult, but the community helped a lot
and myself have taken care of the children,
taking them to the park, you know,
doing activities with them.
- Bye-bye! - Ok, bye-bye!
I love the Derbali family, I will miss them a lot,
I will miss the kids a lot.
- (Justin Trudeau): Why does the word islamophobia
make us uneasy, it's because it goes to fears.
(applause and cheering)
- It's been one year, now.
We're trying to go back to our life.
To get back our life as it used to be before.
For me, I thought I should do something, I cannot stay home
and you know, cry about it, and think about it,
I have to move, I have to do something to help others.
I got involved with the comity that was in charge
of building the bridges between communities
and most specifically between the Muslim community
and the rest of the society.
I always insist, please, don't just believe anything you hear
about Muslims. Try to go to Muslim people and
get all the information you want but get it from the source.
Before I start this work, I was kind of despair
about what's going on, what's going to happen.
I just couldn't accept it,
and even though like so many people,
I just leave, go back home, or go somewhere else.
Not only for me, but I can't see my kids live in this place
when there's a lot of hatred and bigotry and everything.
With this job, with this position,
it's like it gave me hope, hope that things will change.
I heard about some people leaving Quebec,
they just don't feel like it's home, not anymore.
Some others like me, you know, I can continue, I still have
the energy to continue to live here.
For my kids, it's their home too.
They're born here and I don't see to take them from here
and you know, to take them away,
just because someone else doesn't agree,
doesn't agree, or doesn't like us to be here.
- The things that happened here are bound to make you
think about leaving. Because like...
you were targeted because you were Muslim and
you don't feel welcomed.
It's not even the big things that make you want to leave,
it's the small things.
It's not the fear of dying or getting hurt,
it's more the fear of never feeling comfortable
in the place you live.
- I used to work here, within the community
, and within the society andsomehow I feel that I should be here.
We talked a lot about building bridges in society
and I think we need that.
I'm not running away from that, no, no...
There are still people who will do that, who will keep doing that.
It's freezing...
I feel sad, too...
to move and not be here.
There's still a lot to be done,
a lot has been done but a lot still needs to be done.
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