On a snowy afternoon, staff and students of the University of Waterloo gathered outside to stand together in the face of Sunday’s shooting at a Quebec City mosque and the United States’ decision to temporarily ban all visitors from seven countries.
“We just wanted to bring people together so we could all support each other in these terrible feelings that we have, and say that we refuse to give into hate and Islamophobia,” said Aimée Morrison, an associate English professor at the school and one of the demonstration’s organizers.
Hundreds of people attended the lunchtime rally, with many more voicing support for its goals online.
News of U.S. President Donald Trump’s halt on allowing people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen into that country has been a hot topic at the school in recent days.
A number of students from those countries attend Waterloo, including Reem Al-Hendi, who is from Syria and has relatives in the United States.
“I’m terrified,” Al-Hendi said Tuesday.
“We keep taking steps backwards instead of forwards.”
Mohammad Kayyaoi was born in Canada and raised in Jordan, which is not one of the seven countries covered by Trump’s ban – but concern that it could be added to the list has made him wary of travelling stateside.
Kayyaoi’s brother is already in the United States, and relatives have told him to stay put so he doesn’t risk being barred from the country on re-entry.
“He wants to visit Jordan and we are telling him, right now, not to leave … in case Trump expands his list,” he said.
Some faculty members, like Lamees Al Ethari, are affected too.
Al Ethari is a dual citizen of Iraq and Canada.
While the U.S. government has said that dual citizens from the affected countries will be able to enter the country with their Canadian passports, Al Ethari says she’s been advised to cancel a planned March trip to Baltimore, where she was scheduled to present a paper at a conference.
“This fear of what’s going to happen once we’re there is problematic,” she said.
“I’m afraid of how they will question me, what they will do. Will they detain me? I’m not sure.”
Wilfrid Laurier University says 12 of its international students are from the countries affected by the ban.
With reporting by Leena Latafat
