A regulator reflects on Mosque attacks

John Botica

On Tuesday night, while in Christchurch for the Navigating Regulation Summit with the Financial Services Council, I visited the Al-Noor mosque to pay my respects. The mosque was a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  It was 8pm and dusk was just turning into nightfall. There was quite a large crowd, old, young , families, journalists ... gathered around the hundreds of flowers, messages and candles placed on the edge of the cordon. The air was full of the scent of flowers and an overwhelming sense of quiet and peace. Not a sound. Even as some read out messages, hugged their children, hugged each other, some weeping, an eerie sense of calm and quiet was somehow overwhelming.

I wandered down around the cordon following the edge of the park over the Riccarton Stream heading towards the mosque. The little wooden bridge over the stream was full of candles that glowed in the night. Many people are simply standing in silent prayer and reflection. The cordon through the park runs down the length of Deans Ave and is about 50 metres back from the roadside. There's a heavy contingent of armed police present. As we stop to reflect, six men in the field behind are praying. All you can hear is the gentle chanting of their prayer. It's just such a beautiful setting, it's so hard to think about what happened four days earlier.

As we wander back through the park, I notice a boy aged about seven with his mum and dad. They're talking to a policeman over the ribbon of the cordon. The boy hands the policeman a piece of birthday cake, today's his birthday. It was very touching.

I shared this story before delivering our speech the next morning.  There were around 200 delegates.