Portraits honour Quebec mosque shooting victims, as community marks 5th anniversary of attack

Six vibrant portraits of the men killed in an attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City are adorning the walls of the mosque this weekend, as the community marks the five-year anniversary of the shooting. 

The portraits, created by Toronto-based artist and former Montrealer Aquil Virani, show the smiling faces of Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Azzeddine Soufiane and Aboubaker Thabti.

When the mosque's co-founder, Boufeldja Benabdallah, looks at the portraits displayed in the main prayer room, he can't help but think of the little details that made each of his "brothers" special.

"A sportsman," said Benabdallah, pointing at a portrait of Abdelkrim Hassane. "Everyone loved him and misses him a lot. He loved sports and he loved life."

"An intellectual," he said, pointing at Mamadou Tanou Barry. "We always see him sitting in the back there, with his friends, talking."

"A charming man. Whenever I see him, he always has a smile on his face," he said, still speaking of the late Aboubaker Thabti in the present tense. 

"I prefer to see them like they were back then," said Benabdallah.

Virani said this was his intention: to portray the humanity of the six men, to help them be remembered for how they lived rather than just how they died.

"They were real people with real lives, real families and real dreams," he said. 

The portraits, which were inspired by photos submitted by the families of the six men, will be offered to the families as gifts, along with a personalized card, after Saturday's commemorations.

As he was painting, Virani, who is an Ismaili Muslim of Indian and French heritage, thought about how the men were around the same age as his own father.

"My dad brought me to mosque when I was a kid, right?" he said. "So, you know, there's that question of could it have been me, this kind of randomness of a senseless act?"

He also thought about how the photos submitted by the families captured mundane, everyday moments in the men's lives and how unaware they were of the tragedy in their future.

The black-and-white portraits convey respect for the men, while the brightly coloured spray-painted flower pattern in the background of each image is intended to be uplifting, Virani said.