Mr. Speaker, today we remember the victims of the Islamophobic attack at the Quebec City mosque. I remember Mamadou Tanou Barry, Ibrahima Barry, Aboubaker Thabti, Khaled Belkacemi, Azzedine Soufiane and Abdelkrim Hassane: six lives cut short in a place of peace, spirituality and reflection, and 17 children left fatherless.
I am also thinking of the survivors, including Aymen Derbali, whose life was forever changed. This tragedy reminds us of an essential truth: Hatred thrives on silence, prejudice and the trivialization of hate speech. Since racism can masquerade as respectable or reasonable speech, we have a collective responsibility to name this neo-racism, condemn it, fight it, and build a society grounded in dignity, a society bound by mutual respect and fellowship.
Beyond our differences, together we are one, and only one, human race. In the face of hate, silence is no longer an option.