A 63-year-old man from Pickering, Ont., may face hate crime charges after police say he ripped a Palestinian flag off another person’s vehicle in a driveway.
Police allege that a man went into the driveway of a resident, ripped a Palestinian flag off a vehicle, and left behind a threatening and offensive note.
The homeowner, Naveed Ali, told Global News that he confronted the man, and in a struggle, sustained a minor injury.
“Why did you rip my flag off?” Ali told Global News that he recalls saying to the man. “He says, ‘You support Hamas.’ I said, ‘I support Hamas? This flag has nothing to do with Hamas. It has to do with the Palestinian people, the Palestinian cause, the state of Palestine. It has nothing to do with Hamas. How dare you say that.’”
The man was charged with mischief and assault with a weapon and was taken away by police.
However, Durham police say the incident may meet the threshold for a hate-motivated crime.
According to Sgt. Joanne Bortoluss, it’s important to note the threshold between a hate-motivated crime and a hate-motivated incident.
“If there is an underlying motivation of hate that was in relation to that assault, our requirement from there is to take that offence to the Ministry of the Attorney General’s office and work with them and speak with them on what they believe are the elements that led to the assault,” Bortoluss said.
“And from there, they make the decision whether to prosecute as a motivation of hatred which will take effect in trial and sentencing where that becomes a factor.”
A hate-motivated incident, however, is when there is no criminal offence.
“That’s when you have maybe someone slurring or saying something racially motivated but doesn’t tie into a criminal offence. We don’t have anything to proceed with criminally,” Bortoluss said.
In an incident, the job of the police is to provide support and education, and to get community members to address the situation and see what attempts they can make in partnership with other community members to diffuse the situation.
As conflicts overseas continue to escalate, Jewish and Palestinian communities in Canada are continuing to feel worried about the local fallout. As a result, Durham police have increased patrols in neighbourhoods and surrounding places of worship.
“If they don’t see enough of a police presence and they want more, we are available for that,” Bortoluss said.
However, according to police, Durham region is not experiencing the same trend of a spike in hate crime in the area. Meanwhile, Toronto police report a 132 per cent increase in hate-related reports since Oct. 7, when the conflict began.
For this case in particular, no timeline has been set in determining if this was a hate-motivated crime. However, if it ends up being deemed as hate-motivated, the severity of the sentencing could increase at the court’s discretion.
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