Mr. Speaker, the city of Hamilton remains in shock and sorrow over the tragic and needless loss of a teenage Good Samaritan. Yosif Al-Hasnawi died after trying to help an older person who was being threatened on the street by two young men.
Yosif was a 19-year old Brock University student whose family came from Iraq to Canada to escape the violence in their homeland. His Muslim faith and his parents taught him to help others in need, as it is stated in the Quran.
As he stood between the older man and the assailants, a gun was pulled, a shot was fired, and within an hour Yosif succumbed to a bullet wound in the head. Gone from this earth, and gone from his family, his community, and his future.
Let the Al-Hasnawi family know, my colleagues here in Parliament today, that an attack on one is an attack on all.