Toronto police are disputing an 11-year-old girl’s claim that her hijab was cut by a scissors-wielding man as she walked to school last week.
Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash said Monday an extensive investigation was conducted and police concluded it did not happen.
The sixth-grader, her mother and her younger brother held a news conference at her school on Friday and Khawlah Noman said she was walking to school with her younger brother when a man came up behind her, pulled off her jacket hood and started cutting the bottom of her hijab. She said she turned around, screamed and the man ran away. She also said the man returned a short time later and continued to cut her hijab from behind before he smiled and ran away.
Her mother called on police to treat it as a hate crime.
The story made international headlines and drew public condemnation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“It’s something that received, quite understandably, a lot of media and social media attention and I know it caused significant concern, as it should,” Pugash said.
Pugash declined to say whether the girl acknowledged it didn’t happen. He said police wouldn’t take a step like this unless they were absolutely confident.
“It is absolutely unusual,” Pugash said.
Ryan Bird, a spokesman for the Toronto District School Board, said officials are “very thankful” that the alleged assault did not in fact happen.
The school declined further comment.
(AP)
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5 Responses
It is safe to assume that no one is going to denounce Trudeau for commenting too soon without the facts, or that he needs to have his twitter deactivated, or that he is unhinged.
it is not like Arabs to lie, as a matter of fact it is in the Koran. They believe if you can win over your enemy by lying it shows that you are smarter.
Oops, should have said, It is LIKE Arabs to lie……
Not the first time that a person made such false claims. Unfortunately, it got the results they were looking for… “place in peoples’ minds that we (Arabs) are the victims”. I hope that they are in violation of some Canadian law that their police department can enforce and throw them in jail for at least a day. Otherwise, they’ll continue to abuse the system for their own agendas; not to mention that they’re placing peoples’ live at risk by reducing the amount of police available to respond to real criminal activities.
Have you noticed, that even during the rash of these fake hate crimes, that even, and especially, afterwards, I see the fakers in more publicity photo-ops than victims of real hate crimes?
Almost looks like a win-win conspiracy for some folks. I never see or know of these people until they’re found out.