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#AvecQuebec: The World Expresses Its Grief on Twitter

Following the Quebec City mosque shooting, everyone from PM Justin Trudeau to Coeur de Pirate proved that you can say a lot in 140 characters or less

Ishani Nath

By

After the Quebec City mosque attack, the Eiffel Tower went dark and Twitter was flooded with dispatches of grief

The horrific Sunday night attack on a Quebec City mosque that left six men dead and 19 wounded prompted an outpouring of love and support for the Muslim community.

The weight of Sunday’s shooting, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned as “a terrorist attack,” was felt by communities all over the world, who were also reeling from the repercussions of President Donald Trump’s newly-implemented ban on immigration.

A large vigil was held in Quebec City, attended by several political leaders including Trudeau, and numerous other cities followed suit—from Toronto to Iqaluit.

The mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, voiced his grief on Twitter with a heartfelt message to and from his community.

Nenshi also announced that the Calgary Tower would be dark on Monday night, and other downtown spaces lit in blue, white, and gold, “in solidarity with Quebec.”

In a show of support, the Eiffel Tower in Paris also went dark on Monday night.

Activist groups, including Black Lives Matter and the Canadian arm of the Women’s March, shared messages of support. (Canada’s Women’s March has also just released a call to action to address the U.S. Muslim Ban and Islamophobia in Canada.)

French-Canadian singer-songwriter Coeur de Pirate expressed her grief on the social media platform, while singer-songwriter Ladan Hussein, better known as Cold Specks, had a message of strength.

Muslim-Canadian journalists also shared their heartbreak. On the evening of the shooting, Sportsnet anchor Faizal Khamisa tweeted, “My parents just called me, rattled, to ask if I was ok in Quebec City. “Better not tell anyone you’re Muslim,” my mom said. I’m done.”

In light of stories such as Khamisa’s, CityNews journalist Ginella Massa, the first woman to anchor a Canadian broadcast while wearing a hijab, sent strength to other Muslim colleagues.

And Farrah Khan, a sexual violence support and education coordinator at Ryerson University in Toronto, started the hashtag #MosqueMemories, which she used to share exactly what the mosque means to her community. Twitter users quickly adopted it.

Related:
What It Was Like on the Ground at Toronto’s #MuslimBan Protest
Meet the First Woman in Canada to Anchor the News in a Hijab
7 Ways People Are Protesting Trump’s #MuslimBan
You Marched. Now What? The Next Step for Canadian Women