An attack on an 11-year-old girl wearing a hijab – a case that garnered international attention, eliciting responses from the Toronto mayor, the Premier of Ontario and even the Prime Minister – did not happen, Toronto police now say.
Upon her arrival at school in an east-end neighbourhood of Toronto last Friday, the girl told her principal that a man had come up behind her while she was walking with her younger brother and that he had yanked down the hood of her winter coat and used scissors to slice through her light blue hijab. The girl's mother was called. Police were called. A press conference was held and the story quickly blew up on social media.
But on Monday, after a "detailed investigation," Toronto Police said they have determined that the alleged assault – one that was being investigated as a hate crime – simply "did not happen."
Spokesperson Mark Pugash declined to offer any further details about what led investigators to conclude the story was false, but stressed that "it is not a conclusion we came to lightly."
At the press conference at her school on the day of the alleged attack, the Grade 6 student walked reporters through the incident in vivid detail. She said she was scared and confused – and that the man had smiled at her before running away. Her mother, through tears, said that this wasn't the Canada she is proud to call home. [Globe & Mail] Read more
