In the days following the attacks on Paris, four Montreal friends got together to send a message of love over fear that stopped people in their tracks.
Roommates Thomas Brag, Matt Dajer, Derin Emre and Ammar Kandil come from different countries and backgrounds. They have only known each other for four months.
The four men make videos for millenials, trying to get young people to step outside their comfort zone and try new things. But when news of the Paris attacks broke, they felt like they had to make a statement.
The Monday after the attacks, the four friends went to Berri-UQAM metro station. Brag, Dajer and Kandil took off their jackets, revealing t-shirts with their names and where they are from written on the front. They stood hand-in-hand, and in front of them, posters saying they consider each other brothers. And in front of those posters, another, with a simple message: “They cannot separate us.” Emre was there filming the whole thing in a video they posted to their YouTube channel.
“We’re very emotionally attached to each other so when we wrote things like ‘This is my brother, this is my best friend,’ we weren't kidding,” Dajer said.
Their show of friendship and unity was a way of defying fear and division, and it had an amazing impact.
“After literally just five minutes there was just a packed house in front of us. People were just taking pictures and coming up to us, hugging us and crying, telling us their stories,” said Dajer.
They don't necessarily want to be known as issue-oriented videographers, but wanted to put their friendship and unabashed love for each other on display to show people how easy it can be to live together.
“We kept thinking about it for a while and we realized that the best thing we can do right now for the world is to show compassion and show love,” Kandil said.
Even the police officers called to escort them out of the metro because they didn't have a permit were moved by what they saw, they said.
“[It was] the most human thing we've ever lived. Just the amount of positivity and the amount of love that we felt in the air was just unreal,” Kandil said.
