Egyptian Canadians hold somber gathering on Rabaa Massacre anniversary

Remembering victims of massacre in Egypt A group of Egyptian-Calgarians gathered outside of city hall on the three year anniversary of the Rabaa Massacre. Jamie Mauracher reports

Members of Calgary’s Egyptian community congregated outside of city hall on Saturday afternoon to mark the three year anniversary of the world’s largest single day massacre in decades.

On August 14, 2013, hundreds of Egyptian civilians were butchered in the streets of Cairo. During Saturday’s ceremony, a list was unrolled of the names of the more than 1,000 victims of the Rabaa Massacre, their ages and the nature of their deaths.

“Our duty here is to bring some awareness to what happened,” said Mohamed Hassanin.

Sara Behairy was in Cairo during the attacks. She witnessed large crowds of non-violent protestors voicing their opposition to the military coup in the days leading up to the massacre.

“I saw how peaceful it was,” recalls Behairy. “I saw how the demonstrators – they really wanted freedom, they really were fighting for their country.”

In addition to the massive loss of lives, authorities arrested more than 10,000 civilians.

“It was devastating when the massacre happened,” said Behairy. “It was the darkest day in Egyptian history.”

Human Rights Watch referred to the events of August 14 as the world’s largest killing of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.

Egyptian-Calgarians continue to fear for the safety of their loved ones in their homeland.

“Anyone that talks about politics is immediately arrested,” explained Behairy. “Anyone that has views against the coup is arrested. They are tortured to death in the prisons.”

Members of Saturday’s gathering are calling on people around the world to take notice of the injustices that have occurred and continue to occur in Egypt.

With files from CTV's Jamie Mauracher