Terror attacks inspire a made-in-Montreal 'act of love'

Three Montreal roommates took to one of the city's main Metro stations Monday with a public plea for harmony in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Beirut and Paris.

The trio — Matt Dajer, Ammar Kandil, and Thomas Brag  — held hands and wore white T-shirts declaring where they're from originally: Dajer from New York City, Kandil from Egypt and Brag from Paris. 

Kandil's shirt also spelled out that he's Muslim. 

• Artists offer peaceful responses to Paris attacks
• Two options for taking on ISIS and they're both bad: Top Stories

Signs pointing to Kandil at the feet of Dajer and Brag read, "He is my roommate and best friend," while a sign at Kandil's feet pointed to his two friends and read: "These are my brothers."

Photos of the trio started making the rounds on social media Monday morning. 

The three roommates have a YouTube channel called "Generation Y Not" where they post a new video every Monday that documents them undertaking a new challenge or life experience. 

Last week's terror attacks in Beirut and Paris led the three to want this week's video to make a statement against fear and hatred. 

"Those attacks were designed to make us fear each other, and we didn't want that to happen," Kandil told CBC Montreal.

"We decided our video was going to be an act of love. We wanted to tell the world that this is not going to separate us," he said.

Kandil said the public response to the stunt was "beautiful."

"Some people got emotional and cried, people came to us and shook our hand and gave us hugs," he said.

"They agreed with our message to not let this affect our relationship with each other."

The whole display lasted about 70 minutes before Montreal's transit police told the trio they needed a permit to stage a demonstration and asked them to move it outside the Metro station.

Video of the event was later posted to their YouTube channel.