“If it falls into oblivion, it is clear that we open a breach and a door for it to happen again”, says Maryam Bessiri at the start of the documentary Attack at the Quebec mosque: a duty of memory. Catherine Leblanc’s film, presented this Saturday as part of Doc Humanity, revives the memory of the tragedy, but above all takes a look at the context that made it possible and its consequences.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Five years ago, on January 29, 2017, an Islamophobic terrorist act was committed at the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec. The shooter left six dead and several seriously injured. A shock for the Old Capital, for its Muslim community and for its mayor, Régis Labeaume.
Catherine Leblanc of course recalls this sad evening in her documentary, but she does not dwell on it. Nor does she dwell on the motivations of the shooter, whom she never names (“it is not him that we must remember, but the victims,” she says), nor on his psychological state. What she digs into Mosque attack, this is the context, before and after the tragedy. “We wondered why it happened? Why did it happen in Quebec? explains the director. The idea was to provide food for thought. »
His film is particularly interested in a citizens’ committee which has given itself the mission of acting to build bridges and ensure that the tragedy does not fall into oblivion.
I found their word very important because it is through the citizens that it passes. Changes come because citizens decide to take matters into their own hands.
Catherine Leblanc, director
To these citizen voices, Catherine Leblanc adds those of experts whose analyzes shed light on the context that may have led to the Quebec City attack. Since September 11, 2001, it is Islamist terrorism that has mobilized the resources of the authorities, recalls David Morin, specialist in radicalization and violent extremism at the University of Sherbrooke. “In the shadow of jihadism, he points out, the far right has grown. »
In the United States, since 2002, the far right and anti-government movements “have killed more people than jihadist groups”, says the academic. And Quebec is not immune to this rise of the far right, which has manifested itself very visibly in recent years – particularly in Quebec. “It is always more difficult to recognize that someone who looks like us can also threaten us,” notes David Morin.
From Quebec to New Zealand
Catherine Leblanc also jumps to the other side of the world, to Christchurch, New Zealand, where an Islamophobic attack left 51 dead and almost as many injured in March 2019. There is a link between the two killings: the name of the Quebec shooter was written on the weapon used in Christchurch. What interested the documentary filmmaker, however, was the reaction of New Zealand society.
PHOTO LLAMAR YON, PROVIDED BY ICI TÉLÉ
Director Catherine Leblanc
The island country of Oceania has been “much more proactive than Canada”, judges Catherine Leblanc. Less than a month after the attack, a law was passed to ban assault weapons.
On the ground, solidarity was also very present. We have the impression that it was an event that they took head on. Here, we have more the impression that it divided people.
Catherine Leblanc, director
Attack at the mosque: a duty of memory does not end with a positive conclusion. “I would have liked to be able to show how much it had changed, she admits, but it is clear that, five years later, things have not changed much. Neither on social networks, where extremist ideas continue to abound, nor with regard to gun control, a debate that has lasted since the Polytechnique femicide 32 years ago.
“You have to have the courage to look at yourself and ask yourself questions as a society,” believes the director, adding that just because we recognize that there is racism in Quebec does not mean that society Quebecer is racist. “And it is not because we say that there is Islamophobia in Quebec that everyone is Islamophobic. »
All is not hopeless, however. Catherine Leblanc kept in her film an excerpt from a speech by the former mayor of Quebec, Régis Labeaume, who basically says that it is with solidarity and love that we can get through such a collective tragedy. “I think it was a beautiful message of hope,” she said. Just because it happened doesn’t mean you can’t grow from it. »
Saturday, 10:30 p.m. at Doc Humanity on Here TV.