Canadian Muslim leaders have renewed calls for an end to Islamophobic rhetoric and fearmongering as the country prepares to mark the ninth anniversary of the deadly 2017 attack on a mosque in Quebec City, with advocates warning that political discourse and legislative measures risk reviving the same prejudices that fuelled the violence.
The anniversary recalls the killing of six Muslim men when a gunman opened fire at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre on January 29, 2017, an assault that remains the deadliest attack on a house of worship in Canadian history and one that left the city’s Muslim community deeply shaken while prompting nationwide vigils, condemnation and reflection on the rise of anti-Muslim hatred, according to Al Jazeera.
Community leaders have said the commemoration serves as a reminder that Islamophobia in Canada is neither abstract nor harmless, and that the period of solidarity and bridge-building that followed the attack has, particularly in Quebec, given way to a renewed normalisation of suspicion towards visibly practising Muslims, often framed through political narratives around secularism.
Attention has focused on measures adopted by Quebec’s Coalition Avenir Quebec government, which has been in power since 2018 and has advanced a model of state secularism that rights groups argue disproportionately harms religious minorities, especially Muslim women.
In 2019, the government passed Bill 21, barring certain public servants from wearing religious symbols at work, a move justified as part of Quebec’s historical effort to separate church and state but criticised for targeting headscarves, turbans and yarmulkes.
As the government’s popularity has declined ahead of a provincial election expected later this year, further legislation has been introduced to expand these restrictions, including Bill 9, which would extend bans on religious symbols to daycares and private schools, prohibit meals based exclusively on religious dietary requirements, and outlaw collective religious practices such as prayer in public institutions.
While provincial officials maintain that these rules apply equally to all, civil liberties organisations have argued that such laws disguise discrimination under the language of secularism.
At the federal level, Canada has reiterated its commitment to addressing anti-Muslim hate through initiatives such as the 2024 Action Plan on Combating Hate, which has directed funding to community groups and anti-extremism programmes, yet data suggests that Islamophobia continues to rise. Statistics Canada reported 211 police-recorded anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2023, more than double the previous year, followed by a further increase to 229 incidents in 2024.
Officials tasked with combating Islamophobia have said these figures reflect broader challenges facing Canada, including polarisation and the spread of extremist narratives, and have stressed that remembering the Quebec City mosque attack remains essential to preventing history from repeating itself, while honouring the victims by confronting prejudice in everyday life and public policy.