Mosque of Quebec: Houda-Pepin regrets a meeting in the margins of the commemorations

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QMI agency

Sunday, February 4, 2018 19:21

UPDATE
Sunday 4 February 2018 19:31

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QUEBEC – The former liberal mp Fatima Houda-Pepin claims that a meeting in private between the prime ministers, Justin Trudeau and Philippe Couillard and the families of the victims did not go as planned during the commemorations of the bombing at the great mosque of Quebec.

A man in Toronto would have gobbled up the elect at the expense of the bereaved families to call for a national day against islamophobia, according to what she advance. The president of the islamic cultural Centre of Quebec says it is shocked and points out that this claim is false.

On 29 January, before the commemorations, Justin Trudeau and Philippe Couillard held a meeting behind closed doors with the families of the victims at the mosque. We had asked the victims to write a letter to the first ministers and speak of their grief and their suffering.

“Unexpected guest”

But according to Fatima Houda-Pepin, this meeting would not have taken place as the victims wanted.

In the feedback page published Saturday in The Journal de Montréal, she writes: “But, as by chance, it (the meeting) has been monopolized by an “unexpected guest,” who came from Toronto, representative of the movement that calls for the establishment of a national day against islamophobia.”

She adds that the man “was first undertaken by the prime minister Couillard, then prime minister Trudeau, upon his arrival on the scene, much to the chagrin of families who impatientaient and wondered why this man had captured, all by itself, the dignitaries that they had come to meet”.

“The answer would be coming from the representative of the islamic cultural Centre of Quebec: the gentleman from Toronto, to him, $ 400,000 was donated, so he had the right to take his time with the prime ministers”, has also written the ex-mp.

The commemoration ceremony began with a thirty minute delay.

After this meeting, MESSRS. Trudeau and Couillard have in turn talked of islamophobia in their speech.

Contacted by TVA News, the office of the canadian prime minister does not deny that Justin Trudeau has met with people other than those closest to the victim. He did know, by email, that “the prime minister wanted to meet the families of victims and survivors before the ceremony. This is what he has done to the interior of the mosque with each and every one of them.”

For its part, the office of Philippe Couillard told TVA News that “the prime minister has actually met privately with the victims and the six families (…) It has been expressed clearly and publicly its position on the day against islamophobia and that it has not changed. We will comment on not about Ms. Houda-Pepin”.

Mohamed Labidi furious

Reached by telephone, the president of the islamic cultural Center of Quebec was furious.

Mohamed Labidi states that the man whom Fatima Houda-Pepin mentions in his text is Tariq Syed, a volunteer who works for the organization Dawanet in Toronto. It is a non-profit organization that has awarded $ 400,000 in donations from the public in march 2017 to the muslim community of Quebec, in the aftermath of the attack.

The director Labidi noted that he has invited Tariq Syed to furnish a copy of his documentary Your last walk in the Mosque of the two prime ministers.

According to him, he would not have cornered the elect, because the meeting with them lasted only two minutes. Mr Labidi adds that there has never been any question of the promotion of a national day against islamophobia with politicians.

“It has nothing to do with islamophobia, the whole of history that has been mounted from A to Z with it. This is false. We find that it is of the relentlessness. It is disappointing, disheartening,” he said

The board of directors of the islamic cultural Centre of Québec is currently reviewing the next actions it will take following about Fatima Houda-Pepin.

The ex-liberal mp has refused our requests for interviews.

-After the report of Julie Couture