An 18-year-old Kawartha Lakes man is facing a charge of uttering threats as a result of a racism-related incident in the parking lot of Lansdowne Place Mall on Tuesday, July 29.
Peterborough police began an investigation on Friday (August 8) after receiving a report of the incident.
The victims, who appear to be a man and woman of southeast Indian ethnicity, shared several videos of the incident on social media on August 6, including on the Peterborough Shares Facebook group.
“I and my partner are still traumatized and I am posting so that it does not happen to someone else and we want justice,” wrote the male victim.
The videos show the couple being harassed by three young white men in a large white pickup truck that was parked in a parking spot in front of the victims’ vehicle at the mall.
In the video, one of the men gets out of the truck and walks to the victims’ vehicle, where he proceeds to “hump” the side mirror on the driver’s side of the vehicle while staring at the male victim as he was recording the incident on his phone.
At one point in the video, the male victim walks up to the truck. The driver rolls down his window and when the victim asks “Why did you approach like that?” the man in the front passenger seat replies “Because you’re black,” at which point the driver says “No” to the passenger.
The third man in the back seat of the truck, who had humped the side mirror, rolls down his window and can be heard replying to the driver “I won’t say anything bad.”
As the male victim attempts to talk to him, the man says “Shut up, big nose” and then says it’s not illegal to hump a vehicle, asking the victim “Did I touch you?”
“Answer my question, you fucking immigrant,” he says, repeating the slur a second time and also calling the male victim a “stupid n****r” twice, once during the conversation and again when the male victim was walking back to his vehicle.
In one of the videos, the same man can be heard uttering a death threat against the male victim.
After the videos were posted, several people recognized and identified all three of the men who were in the white truck.
The police investigation into the incident included viewing the videos. As a result of the investigation and following consultation with the Crown Attorney’s office, an 18-year-old man from the City of Kawartha Lakes was arrested and charged with uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.
The accused man has been released on an undertaking and will appear in court September 16.
According to a media release from Peterborough police, there is no specific charge for hate crime in Canada that applies to the incident. However, the release states, “there is a hate crime element to this case and that will be addressed as the case moves through the court process.”
“Anybody who has seen the video in this case will understand that that type of behaviour is not acceptable in our community, nor any community,” says Peterborough police chief Stuart Betts in the media release. “I would like to thank everyone who came forward with information in connection with this incident.”
“Clearly this is not the standard of acceptable behaviour in our city. We encourage residents to continue to report hate bias incidents/crimes that take place in our community. Reporting these incidents to police is crucial to ensuring we have the information needed to investigate and pursue charges when appropriate. We are committed to keeping our community safe for everyone who lives, works, or visits here.”
Police say there are several ways to report a hate/bias incident or crime. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1. If it is non-emergency, call 705-876-1122 x225 or use the online reporting portal at peterboroughpolice.com/en/report/report.aspx, where you can also upload photos and video.
