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| Vancuver. Gay-bashing incident was hate crime, police say |
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| Allegedly swarmed while holding hands with another man, victim says gay people aren't safe despite Vancouver's tolerant reputation |
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| Lunedě 29 Settembre 2008 |
| di The Globe and Mail |
| in Mondo |
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By JEFF GRAY
Vancouver Police say a gay-bashing incident in Vancouver's West End that saw a 27-year-old man allegedly swarmed and sucker-punched after he was spotted holding hands with a man should be prosecuted as a hate crime.
Jordan Smith - who says he will have surgery today to have the broken jaw he suffered in the attack wired shut - told CTV News the incident shows gay people are not safe in Vancouver, despite the city's reputation for tolerance.
"You always hear Vancouver is so accepting of gays, the gay capital of Canada, but it's not accepted," Mr. Smith said. "Most gay people have fear and they retreat into these ghettos like the West End for safety. But people infiltrate these areas and beat people up."
Mr. Smith said he was out early Saturday morning near Davie and Hornby Streets holding hands with a man when a group of four or five men approached and began "calling us fag, queers, everything you could imagine. I was just dumbfounded."
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The group followed as the pair tried to get away, and Mr. Smith said he was "sucker punched" on the side of his face, falling backward and hitting the pavement. His attackers then closed in but were scared off after passersby said they were calling police. Officers arrested a suspect in a nearby alley a short time after the 5 a.m. incident and he now faces a charge of assault causing bodily harm.
Vancouver Police Inspector John McKay told CTV News that police will recommend that the charge be treated as a hate crime, which could result in a stiffer sentence on conviction.
Mr. Smith welcomed word from police that they would be pressing for the incident to be treated as a hate crime. "It is a hate crime. They were targeting gay people. That's obvious. Why else would they be in a gay area?"
Michael Kandola, 20, is charged, and was released on bail on Saturday night. He has not entered a plea and is to appear in court today.In June, Vancouver Police said they believed that three young men had participated in a hate crime after a 37-year-old gay man was pelted with eggs on Davie Street a month earlier, but later announced after making arrests that the attack was random.
Gay activists were angered when B.C. prosecutors did not treat the 2001 fatal gay-bashing of 41-year-old Aaron Webster in Stanley Park as a hate crime, resulting in a six-year sentence for the killer, Ryan Cran, in 2005.
The attack occurred in an area of Stanley Park known to be frequented by gay men cruising for casual sex at night. Mr. Webster, ran for his life, terrified and naked, as a group of men chased him with pool cues and other weapons. He was killed by a heavy blow to the head.
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