Solemn ceremonies honor Muslim family killed in Canada

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) - Ceremonies in Canada on Monday marked the first anniversary of the attack that killed four members of a Muslim family.

The events in the city of London, Ontario, were particularly poignant because that is where, on June 6, 2021, a man driving a vehicle deliberately struck the Afzaal family, killing the parents, a daughter and a grandmother, and leaving a nine-year-old boy an orphan. Law enforcement officials said the crime was anti-Muslim and hate-oriented.

One of the many vigils was at the scene where the vehicle ran down the family as they were out for a Sunday evening walk was organized by the friends of Yumnah Afzaal, the 15-year-old daughter who died along with her father, Salman, his wife Madiha and Talat, Salman's mother. More events were scheduled in London through the week.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with others, spoke at one ceremony in London, a city of about 405,000 southwest of Toronto.

“On this day, that we grieve, we also come together in commitment and resolve to make sure that tomorrow and next year, and all the days in the future, are also better,” Trudeau said to hundreds of people in attendance.

“The lives of three generations of the Afzaal family were taken by a brutal, cowardly and brazen act of terrorist violence.”

Politicians, Muslim organizations and anti-hate groups called for action after the attack and a National Summit on Islamophobia summit was held last summer. But some insist little has changed.

“Despite all of the promises we heard last year, one year later, it feels there’s still an unwillingness by our elected leaders to take concrete action against Islamophobia,” Esa Islam told the crowd at the event where Trudeau was a speaker. He is a cousin of the Afzaals.

Provincially the New Democrat Party proposed the Our London Family Act which called for a review of all hate incidents, but it was defeated. That brought 11 Muslim groups together to ask all provincial party leaders to revive and pass the legislation, but it is still in limbo.

Taha Ghayyur, executive director of Justice for All Canada, said Islamophobia is rampant in Canada.

"The attack on the London Muslim family is a result of years of systemic Islamophobia and online hate percolating and thriving in Canada," he said Monday in email comments to Anadolu Agency.

"On this heartbreaking first anniversary of the terror that claimed the lives of three generations of a Muslim family, we need to remind our politicians to criminalize Islamophobia and protect vulnerable Canadian Muslims and their institutions."