Dear Thomas,
Here I am writing to you echoing this unspeakable sadness which has been filling our daily lives for three days. Hoping that where you are, you will hear us. Between each word of this letter, you will find the collective emotion of a school, Joseph-François-Perrault, shaken, of a shaken neighborhood faced with this departure so abrupt, so involuntary and so violent. I am writing to you today as I did a short time ago for Meriem Boundaoui who was the same age as you. She too, struck down by a murderous bullet that stole her life and that will plunge her loved ones and all of us in immense pain. Today, all those who have loved you and accompanied you until then cry. Saint-Michel is in mourning. All of Quebec is in tears. And we cry with your parents.
You have become, in spite of yourself, our Thomas to all. The face of this sordid escalation of gun violence that has invaded our streets, neighborhoods and cities. May you become the star that will guide us through these dark hours that we are passing through.
A model teen
At 16, a passionate hockey fan, you still had a lot of ice time in front of you and that’s not counting travel, studies and all kinds of plans for the future. A coward, a coward, a bastard took you from your loved ones. At 16, you were a model teenager like every parent dreams of having.
You followed the instructions. You were studious at school. You stayed away from troubled situations. A tarla stole your fate from you.
Next Saturday, in Saint-Michel, many of us will be walking to say NO to violence. But, through all this sadness, I still seek the ultimate homage that we can pay you for these sixteen years of happiness. We may be able to erect a huge sculpture in honor of peace with all the seized illegal weapons which, even today, injure and murder.
Dear Thomas, I have just returned from the funeral home where the family and friends of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey are gathered to mourn a son who was the same age as you, carried away by this violence that roams our streets and even our schoolyards. . Autumn has been so sad for three days. But for you and all the other Thomases, we have a duty to work even harder so that the new season is one of hope for the young people of Quebec.
You will forgive me for having familiarized with you. As the poet Jacques Prévert said “I tell you to all those I love”. And since you are about my daughter’s age, I feel you so close to all of us parents. May your young soul rest in peace!
Frantz Benjamin, Deputy for Viau, Official Opposition spokesperson for the Metropolis files