Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Quebec City Thursday, as part of a two-day visit to the province.
He met with Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume at city hall in the morning where he signed the city’s guest book before heading into a closed-door meeting with the mayor.
Prior to meeting with Labeaume, the Liberal leader confirmed he would be back in Quebec City to attend events commemorating the first anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting on Jan. 29.
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Six men were killed and eight others injured, when a lone gunman stormed the mosque and opened fire on the men who had assembled for prayer.
Trudeau did not comment however on whether he would make the anniversary a national day of remembrance and action on Islamophobia — as has been requested by various community organizations.
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Trudeau also answered voter questions at a French-language town hall at 6 p.m. at a local high school.
The evening began with a question on how to better integrate immigrants into Canadian society and ended with Trudeau delivering an impassioned speech on the need to fight racism.
“There is much more we need to do as citizens to create neighbourhoods, a society, a political debate that is more respectful, less anchored in ignorance and insecurity and intolerance,” he told the crowd gathered in a high school gymnasium.
“We all have our role to play.”
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The evening was briefly interrupted by a heckler who unfurled an upside-down Canadian flag with a swastika scrawled across it.
The man yelled incoherent remarks at Trudeau as he was escorted from the room.
The evening event was the latest in a series of town hall-style public meetings being held across the country.
Trudeau has faced tough questions along with the occasional heckler during the first of the public forums, which were held in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
He has said the gatherings give him more time to explain his positions than he’d typically have when answering questions from media or during question period.
— With files from Raquel Fletcher and the Canadian Press
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