French territory situated off Newfoundland’s coast mourning Paris attacks

ST-PIERRE-MIQUELON, France – It’s more than 4,000 kilometres from Paris, but the attacks in France’s capital city are hitting close to home for residents of a French territory located just off the coast of Newfoundland.

The tiny islands of St-Pierre-Miquelon, the only remnant of colonial New France, are situated roughly 25 kilometres from Fortune, N.L., and are home to roughly 7,000 French-speaking people.

St-Pierre deputy mayor Martin Detcheverry said many residents of the territory have family in France, some of whom live near places in Paris that were targeted by the attacks.

He said the community is in shock and mourning the 129 people who died in the attacks Friday in several public gathering places, including a music hall and restaurants.

“It has impacted the community greatly,” said Detcheverry in a phone interview on Monday. “The people are very conscious of what’s going on in France and are very concerned, even though we’re quite far apart.”

Detcheverry said more than 2,000 people from the community and about 20 people from Newfoundland participated in a march on Paris Street in St-Pierre on Sunday to express their sympathies.

“It was a symbolic march, and people responded in great numbers to show their disapprobation to the attacks and to show their sympathies to the people that are mourning their friends and relatives,” said Detcheverry, who has lived in St-Pierre-Miquelon his whole life.

Many of the territory’s schools, businesses and government offices observed a moment of silence on Monday for the victims and flags were at half-mast, said Detcheverry.

He said the territory was also observing the three days of national mourning declared by French President Francois Hollande.

St-Pierre Mayor Karine Claireaux, who is also the French senator for St-Pierre-Miquelon, was in Paris Monday for parliament meetings, said Detcheverry.

— By Aly Thomson in Halifax.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version used an incorrect spelling of St-Pierre-Miquelon and St-Pierre.