Edmonton hate-fuelled attacks ‘alarming’, says Black community leader

EDMONTON – Two separate hate-motivated attacks on Black hijab-wearing women in Edmonton this month has a number of the city’s community leaders demanding change.

Dunia Nur, the president of the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council, says Edmonton’s Black community is on edge following the two attacks.

Nur is part of a coalition of Black, Somali and Muslim leaders who want to see Canadian legislation strengthened when it comes to hate-motivated crimes.

“Our communities right now, the Black community, the Muslim community, a lot of visible communities – that includes women in general – are questioning if our system is adequately set up to deal with hate crimes,” said Nur.

“We need to disrupt this culture of violence and normalization of violence. Normalization of violence during a time of recession is actually what has led to, historically, a lot of genocides and atrocities that we’ve been through that are still in our textbooks.”

On Tuesday a 23-year-old woman was allegedly attacked without provocation with a shopping bag by a woman not known to her at the Southgate LRT station. The attacker yelled racially motivated obscenities. A 32-year-old Rene Ladoucer was charged with assault with a weapon, and was found to have a number of outstanding warrants.

Last week, a man was charged for allegedly assaulting a mother and daughter in the Southgate mall parking lot after smashing their car window and yelling racist slurs. While the victims have shared that there was a second attacker, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee could only say that it is still under investigation.

Both incidents happened in broad daylight. Edmonton police say the two cases are not linked, although both have resulted in the Hate Crimes and Violent Extremism unit to recommend that a section of the criminal code relating to hate be used in sentencing.

READ MORE: Woman charged in second hate-motivated attack in recent weeks, politicians denounce hate crimes

Nur says minority communities are starting to question how effective Canada’s system is in terms of protecting them from hate crimes.

“Unfortunately, after this case came out, we had many women in our community that started speaking (out),” said Nur.

She said a lot of women shared stories of how they too were attacked, some even saying people threatened them using knives.

2 attacks, a week appart, hate motivated where all three victims were Black, visibly Muslim (wearing a hijab) and women. Speaking with community and experts today, there is fear of hate rising due to the pandemic, social isolation and double economic downturn in Alberta #yeg https://t.co/31bP3rOoSk

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) December 16, 2020

John McCoy, the executive director of the Organization for the Prevention of Violence, believes the economic downturn and social isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to more hate.

“If it continues with the trends we see now, this is going to be a disturbingly common feature of Canadian life,” said McCoy.

One of the things Nur said the council is concerned about is public transit.

“What we’re finding is transit is also more likely where you’ll be assaulted, physically assaulted or verbally assaulted, if you are from these communities,” she said.

“It definitely is alarming.”

The community leader is hopeful that new leadership at the Edmonton Police Service will lead to a better culture in the city and more acceptance for BIPOC.