Slaughter in the mosque: the night where everything changed

Photo courtesy
This exclusive photograph shows the mayor of Québec, Régis Labeaume, in a summit meeting with the prime minister of Quebec, Philippe Couillard, and the two ministers Sébastien Proulx and Martin Coiteux, a few hours after the slaughter of the mosque. The four men were to appear before the media in the first press conference following the attack, in the night from 29 to 30 January 2017.

Stephanie Martin

Friday, 26 January, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Friday, 26 January, 2018 00:00

Look at this article

WASHINGTON | The silence, broken only by the messages on the radio waves. In the co-ordination centre where the mayor of Quebec city has made emergency the night of the killing, the gravity of the situation required a calm hand.

• Read also: Labeaume listening to the mayors of Las Vegas and Orlando
• Read also: Lisée calls Couillard to show ” more of height
• Read also: Two years of threats and gestures of hate

“It stuck with me. We heard nothing. The city was supervised, there were monitors everywhere. Instinctively, the consensus that there was, was that he had to stay calm. We had no idea of the number of the dead “, remembers Régis Labeaume, who accepted Thursday for the first time back on this painful night of January 29, 2017.

A few minutes earlier, in his cottage on the Côte-de-Beaupré, he read quietly his / her documents, in preparation for the coming week.

Then, a call from the deputy director-general of the City, Chantale Giguère. “She said to me : “there would be a massacre at the mosque. We don’t know any better. I’ll let you know.” “A few seconds later, the former advisor Marie-Josée Savard, who lives in road of the Church, sends text messages notifying him that something is not going to the mosque. The police is everywhere.

Archival Photo Simon Clark

Shortly after the shooting on the evening of 29 January 2017, the families of the victims gathered at the arena in Sainte-Foy, under the supervision of the police.

Emergency procedure

The emergency procedure snaps into place. En route to the coordination centre, it crosses the dam police officer near the bridge of the island of Orleans, where the alleged killer was arrested.

“I was in a state of vigilance, organization. The complete calm, ” says the mayor. Even though he feels the “pressure” of talking to the media, he resists. “I’m more useful in the center than in front of the cameras. “

While assumptions abound, there is always, in the background, a “nightmarish vision” for him. And if it was an act ordered by an ideological group like Daesh ?

When he leaves the centre, a little after midnight, to go to the prime minister, Régis Labeaume is still not the clear picture of the shooting. The author of these lines was waiting at the exit. “On the way out, when I view, I realized. It happened in our beautiful city. That can’t be true that it happened in Quebec city. This is where I started to be emotional. “

When he pronounced his first words at a press conference organized in haste, in the middle of the night, the dike gave way. “I cracked the first words. I was completely upside down. “

That night, the mayor has not closed the eye. “You keep coming back to you, and you say : “what just happened ?” “The first thought goes to the victims, their women and their children. Then, the consequences for Quebec, which is proud to be one of the safest cities in the world.

Understand the incomprehensible

The next day, the muslim community met at city hall with elected officials of all political persuasions, all shocked, overwhelmed. Between tears and hugs, we are trying to understand the incomprehensible.

At this point of his narrative, Mr. Labeaume stops for a moment, unable to continue, won by emotion.

“I felt that there was a unit. “

And while some relatives were waiting for further news of their father, their husband, their brother, Régis Labeaume knew how the coming weeks would be difficult.

HORRIBLE TIMES

“It was a night of horror. A night where you ask yourself 1000 questions, where do you make 1000 plans, where you prepare responses to 150 situations. And there, you say to yourself : “It is necessary to manage it”. “

“The feeling of solidarity was fundamental. It had all the cultural communities of Quebec to know that we were in solidarity and united. I wanted a big gesture of affection. “

“We jumped in the arms of one another. Everyone was crying. It was horrible. We had the taste to apologize. “

— Régis Labeaume, mayor of Quebec city