Close X
Friday, November 15, 2024
ADVT 
National

Mayor Signs Deed For Quebec City's First Muslim Cemetery, Set To Open In Spring

Darpan News Desk, 19 Dec, 2019 12:00 AM

    Quebec City's mayor has signed a deed of sale for a parcel of land that will soon become the region's first Muslim cemetery.

     

    Mayor Regis Labeaume had promised the land to the city's Muslim community in 2017, shortly after residents of a nearby town voted against a proposal to open an Islamic cemetery in their area.

     

    The mayor was joined for the public signing Thursday by Boufeldja Benabdallah, president of the main mosque in Quebec City, who thanked Labeaume for pushing ahead with the project and avoiding a divisive debate.

     

    Benabdallah says Quebec City's Muslims have been working to have their own cemetery for 20 years.

     

    Community members seeking formal Islamic burials have had to send their dead to Montreal.

     

    The Quebec City Muslim cemetery is expected to open by the spring.

     

    Benabdallah's mosque was the site of a mass shooting in January 2017, when a gunman murdered six men in the main prayer hall.

     

    The following summer, residents of Saint-Apollinaire, 35 kilometres southwest of Quebec City, rejected a proposal to open the area's first Muslim cemetery on their territory, by a vote of 19 to 16.

     

    At Thursday's ceremony, Labeaume invited citizens to "love each other." He told reporters Quebec City is changing, and new waves of immigration will make the city — and the rest of the province — more diverse.

     

    "As of today, we need to start thinking about what we can do, about the steps we can take in our community, so that we can all live together in harmony," he said.

     

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Trudeau's Plane Damaged, Now Backup Plane Grounded In London, U.K.

    The RCAF says that plane, a CC-150 Polaris, is being repaired but is temporarily "unserviceable."

    Trudeau's Plane Damaged, Now Backup Plane Grounded In London, U.K.

    B.C. Bans Logging In Sensitive Border Area After Urging From Seattle Mayor

    B.C. Bans Logging In Sensitive Border Area After Urging From Seattle Mayor
    Forests Minister Doug Donaldson says B.C. will no longer award timber licences in a 5,800-hectare plot called the Silverdaisy or "doughnut hole" in the Skagit River Valley.

    B.C. Bans Logging In Sensitive Border Area After Urging From Seattle Mayor

    Annual Surrey Toy Drive Remembers Boy Who Wanted Every Sick Kid To Have A Christmas Gift

    The Surrey RCMP is hoping to make the holidays a little brighter for sick kids and their families by inviting the public to come out and support the annual Keian’s Holiday Wish Toy Drive.

    Annual Surrey Toy Drive Remembers Boy Who Wanted Every Sick Kid To Have A Christmas Gift

    Distracted Driving Simulator Targets North Vancouver Teens And Texting

    Today they were at Carson Graham Secondary School, where they also had on hand two sets of fatal vision goggle, which simulate the visual effects of impairme

    Distracted Driving Simulator Targets North Vancouver Teens And Texting

    Alberta RCMP Continue To Investigate Crash Between School Bus And Mobile Crane

    Alberta RCMP Continue To Investigate Crash Between School Bus And Mobile Crane
        The crash happened at 8:30 a.m. yesterday near Smoky Lake, which is about 115 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

    Alberta RCMP Continue To Investigate Crash Between School Bus And Mobile Crane

    Canadian Organizations Distancing Themselves From Disgraced Royal

    A prominent member of the Royal Family has little ground left to lose in Canada even as he faces fresh scrutiny and public rebukes closer to home.    

    Canadian Organizations Distancing Themselves From Disgraced Royal