PhiLab – July 2017 “25 000 tuques” : A symbolic stitchwork By Éliane Brisebois, collaborator, PhiLab PhiLab Blog, July 2017 Fall 2015. In the wake of the waves of migration caused by the war in Syria, the Canadian government announces its intention to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by February 2016. Suspicious and fearful of possible threats to national security in a context where several jihadist attacks have made the news in the West, citizens use social media to express their opposition to the government’s project. Outraged by "xenophobic" comments, actress and author Danielle Létourneau has an idea. "I thought, us - my gang, me, those I do not need to convince on Facebook - we will get together, we will knit them [the refugees] hats and we will put a letter inside. There are lame people in life, but us, we are happy that you are arriving. We are relieved for you, we will welcome you. You can turn to us, we are that population. (Interview with Danielle Létourneau, November 28 th , 2015) She then launched the Facebook page "25 000 tuques" on November 18 th , unaware that in but a few weeks, she will have helped create a citizen movement that will be mentioned in fifty articles and media reports - even quoted by the US President Barack Obama - and to which hundreds of people from across Canada would take part. A simple invitation to knit, launched from the social media platform Facebook, will have mobilized communities and individuals from all over Quebec, but also in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and even the United States. In addition to citizens, the movement will have rallied museums, businesses and community organizations that have contributed in various ways, be it through the organization of knitting events or the establishment of drop-off points to repatriate the hats, etc. A phenomenon based on solidarity and with a rapid expansion thanks to the Internet, which accelerates the growth of "mediation and matching devices" favoring organizational donations (Naulin and Steiner, 2016), "25,000 tuques" can be analyzed with the notions and concepts of the "sociology of social movements" from the book of the same name by Erik Neveu (six editions with the last one being from 2015). The analysis presented here is based on the content of the "25,000 tuques" Facebook page and interviews conducted with Danielle Létourneau at two different times while the movement was in full swing (November 28 th , 2015 and December 12 th , 2015).