Quebec City community holds mass, creates schoolyard monument to honour victims

On Tuesday evening, hundreds crowded into achurch in the Quebec City suburb ofSainte-Foy for a commemorative mass that was held for the victims of Sunday night's mosque shooting.

• Complete coverage of the Quebec City mosque attack

Muslims from the nearby Islamic cultural centre, where the attack occurred,joinedthe 7 p.m. service at theNotre-Dame-du-Foy church.

The co-founder of the Centre culturel islamique de Qubec, Boufeldja Benabdallah, spoke to the congregation before the service started.

He received a longstanding ovation and began his speech with praise for Quebec and Canada.

"As Muslims, we believe we have many things. But we have received so much from the people of Quebec," Benabdallah said.

• 'Words can be knives': Premier urges Quebecers to cool the rhetoric

At some moments, he began to tear up as he spoke about the families affected by the shooting which killed six men.

"Childrenwill say,'Father, father,' and he won't be there," he said.

Before the mass, Cardinal Grald Cyprien Lacroix, the archbishop of Quebec, spoke alongsidehim outside the church.

"Despite the horrific events which took place in Quebec, we hope some good comes of this,"CyprienLacroix said.

"I agree with you 100 per cent,"Benabdallahadded.

Elementary school prayer

Earlier in the day, students atthe Notre-Dame-De-Foy school made a monument for the victims of the mosque shooting.

The children placed messages of unity in the snow.

None of them lost a parent in the shooting, but it still affected many deeply.

They knelt in prayer after havingplaced their paper stars into a mini-monument in their school yard.

• PHOTOSAfter Quebec mosque attack, thousands gather across Canada in solidarity