THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay Police say they’ve looked into whether or not a recent alleged assault involving a thrown trailer hitch qualifies as a hate crime.
Const. Julie Tilbury said it doesn’t at the moment, but courts may decide otherwise should the suspect be found guilty.
Tilbury said police are fully aware of the impact the Jan. 28 incident, has had on the community. On the date in question two Aboriginal women were walking on Cameron Street near Mackenzie Avenue, when a passenger in a passing vehicle hurled a rusty trailer hitch at them, striking one of them in the abdomen and landing her in hospital with serious injuries.
“At this point in time we are looking at the criminal code to see what provisions are there and where this incident fits within there,” the police spokeswoman said.
Brayden Bushy, 18, turned himself into police over the weekend and has since been charged with aggravated assault.
Two other males and a female traveling in the vehicle were interviewed by police, but were not charged and released. Bushby remains in custody.
Tilbury said at this point, the circumstances just don’t merit a hate-crime charge, though many in the community, including Aboriginal leaders, have called for it. To lay a hate-crime charge, two sections of the Criminal Code of Canada must be consented.
The first, Section 318 deals with hate propaganda and advocating genocide. The second, Section 319, deals with public incitement of hatred or willful promotion of hatred.
The attorney general must be consulted in order to lay a charge under either section of the Act.
“There is a provision that once someone is found guilty of an offence, when they go to the sentencing phase that all the mitigating circumstances, the motivations behind it, if it is deemed to be motivated by hate, bias or prejudice, that it can come into play when sentencing is sent down,” Tilbury said.
“It’s decided by all the information that is presented.”
Bushby, who appeared in court on Sunday, will remain behind bars until his next court date on Tuesday.
Tilbury said police are aware this type of assault is a problem in Thunder Bay and are encouraging other victims to come forward in order to give them a full scope of just how bad it is.
She added the reported incident, which police were investigating before a complaint was laid, is an example of members of the public stepping forward and doing the right thing, which led to a quick arrest.
