Naima Rharouity ID'd as victim in Montreal escalator death

Quebec's coroner's office has released the name of the woman who died Thursday whenher scarf and hairbecame tangled in an escalator at theFabremetro station.

She isNaimaRharouity, 47.

• Montreal Metro scarf tangling leads to woman's death

In a brief email, a spokeswoman for the coroner's office saidRharouity'sdeath will be investigated by Dr. Paul Dionne.

The coroner will be assisted by Montreal police and by the agency responsible for maintaining Quebec's building code, theRgiedubtimentduQubec, which is conducting its own investigation.

A new immigrant, wife and mother

Rharouityhad been receiving help froma community organization in Montreals east end neighbourhood ofVilleray, where she had also volunteered for the last year.

Whenever we had special events, she always made herself available, saidDjelloulMersel, a manager atProjetVilleraydansl'Est.

She was a person who wanted to help. She cooked with the other women, she talked with them she was very sociable and wanted to integrate.When I found out it was her, it was a shock.

MerselsaidRharouityimmigrated from Morocco about a year and a half ago with her husband and their two sons, aged fiveand eight.

Rharouity'shusband is out of town he was called toMoroccorecently because his mother had died, but he's now en route back to Montreal.

Merselsaid he wonders how the children are coping.

When any human being dies like that, it is tragic and it is sad, because she has two kids who are alone now. We have to think of the children.

Merselsaid the community is rallying together to helpRharouity'sfamily.

Im Algerian and shes Moroccan, but in our culture, when someone dies, the first gesture is to collect money for the family and the community is already doing that.

Death sparks hateful comments

Rharouity'sdeath prompted some hateful reaction online, after some media outlets reported she was wearing ahijabat the time of the incident.

Some online comments referred toQuebecs secular charter, which proposes to ban religious symbols for public employees while on the job.

The boundaries of what issayableand what isn't have moved more in the last six months than I can ever remember in my lifetime in Quebec," said DanielWeinstock, a philosophyand law professor atMcGillUniversity.

Weinstocksaid the charter has made it socially acceptable for people to say racist things they previously might have kept to themselves, adding thatthePartiQubcoisneeds to do more to ensure the charter debate continues in a respectful, calm manner.