Sada al-Mashrek, Montreal
A lady from Montréal-Nord has shared the details of a racist aggression that she was subjected to on Saturday. She tells us that other women living in the same area have also been victims of the hate crime. Sada al-Mashrek has followed up the case, discussing it with city councillor for Marie-Clarac district in the Montréal-Nord borough, Abdelhaq Sari, who’s been following up the case since its start.
He stalked her, threatened to rape & kill her, & he cursed Islam, hijab & Arabs
The woman, who’s chosen to remain anonymous, says it all started when she driving down the Pie-IX Boulevard. The man driving ahead was showing offensive body language. For a while, she thought he was speaking on the phone, and she failed to notice that he was obstructing her way intentionally. But as soon as their cars came arow, the man threw a rock at her car & began gesturing weirdly; he placed a knife by his neck to imply he would slaughter her, waved a cane to imply he would beat her up and showed offensive signs to imply he would rape her.
The aggressor as well hurled foul language at Islam, hijab and Arabs.
The lady eventually managed to take a photo of his licence plate, but her continuous attempts to escape failed as the aggressor kept chasing her. The only way left for her was to call the police service to report his conduct.
The policeman who wrote the proceedings trivialised the incident
A resident of Montréal-Nord, the lady tells Sada al-Mashrek that the policeman belittled her trauma. Because she doesn’t speak French well enough, the officer omitted some facts from his report, she says. A female friend that had come to support the victim, however, spoke to the officer to make sure the report was rectified with the missing details.
The victim expresses shock over the kind of questions that the police officer asked; whereas the aggressor hadn’t got off his car, the officer asked her about the aggressor’s weight and colour of his trousers!
The aggressor has threatened several women in Montréal-Nord
The wronged lady explains that her shock intensified after she had talked to her niece about the incident. It turned out that her niece had been wronged by the same assailant, who had also damaged her car with a rock he threw at it. It even turned out that another woman had been offended and threatened to be killed.
The interviewee says she has urged both women to report the offender to the police.
As search continues for any other victims, we have news concerning a fourth woman who was stalked by a man in the same borough last July. Once the woman sought refuge in a mosque, the stalker tried to break in to assail her.
According to the interviewee, the first three assaults happened in one month, whereas the fourth happened last July, and it remains unknown whether the same attacker was involved in all four.
SPVM has confronted the assailer
Sorrowing over the incident, the interviewee says she’s lived in Québec for 32 years but doesn’t feel safe anymore. She explains she’s always experienced racist incidents but that this has been the first time she senses danger.
On October 13th, the lady headed again to the SPVM station to get updated on the developments in her case. She adds that the investigators have shown great concern for the case and that the police service has interrogated the assailant, who has confessed to attacking the interviewee and others in Montréal-Nord. The officers in charge have thus warned him against offending other women with his racist conduct and confirmed the accuser had the right to sue him at her discretion.
Abdelhaq Sari has taken action
City councillor for the Marie-Clarac district in the Montréal-Nord borough, Mr Abdelhaq Sari, has followed up the case since the beginning, especially that he’s been the vice-president of Montreal’s Public Security Commission (Commission de la sécurité publique) since Dec 2017. The councillor has immediately condemned the assault, confirming the council has had to urge the legal authorities to serve justice and end racism in the area.
Sari as well urges any woman to report instantly any racist attack to the police.
Why are racist attacks on the rise?
Sada al-Mashrek has spoken to Mr Abdelhaq Sari, inquiring about the number of racist incidents he’s aware of. He confirms this isn’t the first time a woman gets subjected to a racist assault in Montréal-Nord, but rather that an incident occurs monthly approximately and that women make most of the victims.
Asked about what might have increased the rate of such incidents, Sari emphasises that the rise of both the far-left and far-right extremism is the cause. He points out that extremism isn’t confined to Montréal, but has arisen in Québec, Canada and the world.
What are borough & city councils supposed to do? Are any steps going to be taken to fight racism & extremism?
Mr Sari confirms that the borough council’s role is to provide guidance and that the council mustn’t interfere with the police service’s lest its independency be obstructed. He points out that it’s the City of Montreal that’s in charge of setting the guidelines, appointing the police chief and approving of the police service’s budget.
Sari says the councillors are meeting on Oct 24th to look into these aggressions and make recommendations to the City of Montréal to strengthen efforts against hate incidents and crimes.
The recommendations are going to be based on figures collected by Statistics Canada, which show that hate crimes reported to the police rose by 27% in 2021 compared to 2020. The crime rate had risen by 72% in 2020 compared to 2019. By that, the rate has reached its highest since 2009, when Statistics Canada began keeping records.
Intending to make these recommendations, the council seeks to upgrade SPVM’s tools for reporting online hate crimes and to instruct police officers on handling this type of crimes, their legal implications and their psychological impacts on the targeted communities.
Photo Credit Freepik*