[Fdu] Joint Statement on the Shooting at the Great Mosque in Québec City

[Cynthia Wright]

*School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, *

*Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies *

*and Centre for Feminist Research at*

**

*York University, Toronto, Canada*

**

*Statement on the Shooting at the Great Mosque in Québec City*

It is with great consternation and profound sadness that we learned that 
a crime of hate and of Islamophobia had been committed at the Great 
Mosque in Québec City on Sunday night, January 29, 2017, which cost the 
lives of six people and wounded nineteen others. As a community of 
feminist scholars committed to implementing a pedagogy of anti-racism, 
anti-violence and decolonization in our everyday teaching and research, 
we offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the victims, families, 
and communities affected by the loss of a husband, a father, a brother, 
a cousin, a friend, a co-worker, a loved one. We stand with the Muslim 
community in Québec City and elsewhere in Canada whose sense of safety 
has been violated during a time and in a place of prayer and peace.

We cannot continue our work without acknowledging that this horrendous 
crime of hatred was committed within a particular political context. For 
years, the Great Mosque in Québec City has been the target of acts of 
harassment and hate speech fed by a small number of vocal journalists 
and opinion leaders who constantly amalgamate Islam and Muslims with 
terrorism.  In addition, this crime of hate happened during a time when 
entire Muslim communities are being specifically named, targeted and 
threatened with deportation, prevented from travelling safely around the 
world; when American Muslims are threatened with the prospect of losing 
of their jobs, their livelihoods as well as their professional and 
academic futures, and are at risk of racist violence.  We call on York 
University to become a solidarity/sanctuary campus for all those 
affected by the Trump executive order, and on the federal government to 
facilitate the welcoming of those seeking refuge in Canada.

Anti-immigration policies are not new in the US or in Canada. We cannot 
remain blind to the fact that Canada and the US have deep-seated racism 
and sexism within their respective societies. In the Canadian context, 
we call for the repeal of the Barbaric Cultural Practices Act and other 
forms of gendered Islamophobia, where Muslim communities are being 
racially profiled through security, surveillance and so-called 
anti-radicalization practices. We call upon York University to re-double 
its efforts in education and organizing around racism and Islamophobia.

During the last few days, we have heard strong words of condolences, and 
sometimes apologies, from politicians and other public personalities, 
including here at York. We welcome these declarations but at the same 
time, we ask all of us to go beyond these words to act and to denounce 
the poisonous political climate of Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, 
transphobia and sexism everywhere and each time it is manifested, be it 
in the classroom or in the community where we live and work.

What happened on Sunday, January 29th was predictable.  It is with a 
sense of urgency that we want to act in solidarity with Muslim 
communities and with all communities that are specifically affected, 
targeted and have to pay the price of racism, bigotry and violence. As 
units at York University, we hope to continue our mission to provide a 
safe space for dialogue and to pursue our anti-racist and anti-violence 
pedagogy in and outside our classrooms, in and outside the university, 
as we continue to remember those who lost their lives and those who 
mourn them.

In solidarity,

School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies

Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies

Centre for Feminist Research

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