Graffiti attacks on religious places in Ottawa, rises hate crimes in Canada
Some miscreants sprayed swastikas and slurs about the black people on the doors of the church, located at Parkdale and Gladstone avenues on Thursday night.
Dr. Anthony Bailey, Pastor of the Parkdale Church told PostMedia network, “There is an emboldening that has taken place, I believe. I don’t think it’s just one person or one group. I think that they are elements within our city that contribute to this kind of hateful speech.”
Bailey continues, “I know that my brothers over in the Muslim community have it happening fairly regularly. They don’t report it all the time because they’re fearful it creates copycats.
“Ottawa is a wonderful place but it has some issues that sometimes are not understood by (people unfamiliar with the experiences of different races),” he said.
The spray paint graffiti attacks started earlier last week with the Kehillat Beth Israel Congregation near Carling and Keithwood, facing tit first, followed by a small pray centre in Glebe, and then at the Congregation Machzikei Hadas, a synagogue in Featherstone Park.
The mosque too got a lot of “go home” abusive marks sprayed along the building doors.
The Parkdale church faced this attack a second time. Earlier, this year, days before a service was planned for Martin Luther King Day, the church was attacked with abusive graffiti.
Ottawa police are investigating the hate crimes that are lurking across the city.
In a statement released earlier via twitter, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, condemned the anti-Semitic crimes in the country, especially in the Capital city.
“To the Canadian Jewish community: I stand with you. Our government denounces recent acts of anti-Semitism in the strongest terms,” Tweeted Trudeau.
Some sociology experts wonder whether there is any connection to the rise in hate crimes following the neighbouring US election win. The new US President Donald Trump’s hate speeches towards the Jews, Blacks and the Muslims, could be a possible reason to the rise in hate crimes in Canada as well as in US, believes experts.
(Reporting by Debarati Mukherjee)
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