Quebec City mosque attack five years later: imam recalls immense sorrow, disbelief

Five years after a gunman killed six people and seriously injured 19 others at a Quebec City mosque in an attack that stunned the country, the imam that presided over the funerals of some of the victims says the feelings of sorrow remain.

Hassan Guillet recalls the shock and sadness upon learning of the Jan. 29, 2017 attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City – an assault that was widely condemned as an act of terrorism.

“When it happened five years ago, the first impression I had was disbelief,” Guillet said. “The surprise and the disbelief. I did not want to believe it.

“I’m still feeling very sad. My feeling is and my sympathy and my solidarity is with the victims’ families. The orphans and the widows.

“I’d been living in Quebec and Canada for 40 years. I never thought that we will live a tragic moment like that.”

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Several dozen worshippers were at the mosque for evening prayers when a gunman entered and opened fire. The attack sent shockwaves across Canada and around the world.

The six men killed were Azzedine Soufiane, Aboubaker Thabti, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Ibrahima Barry and Mamadou Tanou Barry. They left behind multiple widows, and 17 children lost their fathers.

The shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette, eventually pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder. He was sentenced originally to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

In November 2020, that time before parole was reduced to 25 years after the appeal court found the consecutive sentencing provision to be unconstitutional.

The Crown appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which will hear the case on March 24.

WATCH: Quebec City mosque shooter’s sentence reduced (November 2020)

With the five-year anniversary approaching, Guillet remembers the message he sent to the widows and children left behind by the shooting.

In his funeral address, he called Bissonnette a victim as well. Guillet wanted to convey the idea that before the shooter killed his victims, somebody had planted ideas in his head that were even more dangerous than bullets.

“Our enemy is not Alexandre Bissonnette,” Guillet said. “Our enemy is the ignorance. And when I said Alexandre Bissonnette himself is a victim, it was very hard for me. I was talking in front of six widows and 17 orphans and the families of the wounded ones, and many people in the mosque when the shooting happened.

“I said yes Alexandre was a victim. But we want him to be the last victim of hatred and hate propaganda. And we want our victims here, our martyrs, to be the last to fall under the bullet of hatred.”

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In the last five years, Guillet and many others in Quebec’s Muslim community have mobilized to shed light on Islamophobia.

But they want more out of politicians, even after the Canadian government made Jan. 29 the National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia.

“We see the remembrance around Canada – even myself I am invited to many of these. But we don’t see the action,” said Guillet.

The imam says he’s looking at what can be done next to make things safer for Muslims, while always honouring the victims.

“Aboubaker, Khaled, Abdelkrim, Azzedine, Mamadou, Ibrahima. We cannot do anything for our brothers killed. We cannot do anything for them,” said Guillet.

“We hope they are in heaven now. But we can do something for their families.

“We couldn’t save their lives but we should save the lives of our children.”

—With files from The Canadian Press