The Islamic Society of Kingston held a virtual vigil for the Afzaal family on Monday night.

Many communities across Canada held marches and vigils to remember the one year anniversary of the tragic event when a truck jumped a curb in London Ontario, killing four members of the family who were out for a Sunday walk.

“The greater community does come together even when these tragedies do not happen here…they want to show this is not the norm…We’ve seen that time and time again in Kingston,” Islamic Society of Kingston member Mona Rahman says.

There are members of the Afzaal family from Kingston. Rahman spoke to CFRC news about the vigil:

Rahman says it's only recently that Islamophobia is being taken seriously. In 2017, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) saw about a 150 per cent increase in acts of Islamophobia.

"There's a huge jump, part of it was people were feeling emboldened because of the political climate to act on their hate and people were reporting it, we need to start calling it what it is, reporting it and when that happens hopefully we can make those changes on the political level," says Rahman.

Kingston City Hall was lit up purple and green, as purple was Yumna Afzaal’s favourite colour, and green has been adopted to stand against Islamophobia.

Listen to the full CFRC interview with Mona Rahman: