Barrie's police chief says a 30-year-old woman arrested in connection to a Maple Avenue incident earlier this month will not be charged with a hate crime.
City police have charged the suspect with assault, assault with a weapon, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and failing to comply with probation following a verbal and physical altercation Dec. 3 in front of Shak’s World Community Centre in downtown Barrie, which was captured on video.
None of the allegations against the accused have been tested in court.
The UPLift Black advocacy council released a statement the following day condemning the attack and calling for more support to address racism in Barrie and Simcoe County, as well as asking police to add hate crimes to the list of charges against the accused.
Speaking at the recent Barrie Police Services Board meeting, Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood explained there is legislation in Canada that specifically recognizes hate crimes.
“I would say, across our country, there are very few times that threshold is met,” the chief said.
“If you look at mischief under the criminal code, those are probably the more common... but hate incidents may not meet the criminal threshold of meeting criminal code charges," Greenwood added. "There may be an altercation, there may be racial slurs, but that doesn’t meet the definition of a hate crime under the criminal code.”
Police say they work with the Crown to see if incidents meet the necessary threshold of a hate crime under the criminal code.
Shanicka Edwards, who is known locally as 'Shak', and a group of people were outside the community centre the morning of Dec. 3 when a vehicle stopped in the street. A woman exited the car and approached the group while shouting expletives and racially motivated epithets as the group gets in between Edwards and the woman.
The woman then gets back into her vehicle and reverses quickly while Edwards continues to record the incident.
Edwards called the incident one of "pure hate."
“It was very aggressive,” Edwards told BarrieToday at the scene shortly after the incident. “(She was) telling me to ‘go back where I came from.’ ... I was born in Canada and I grew up in Simcoe County."
Edwards said the attack was unprovoked.
“I was in shock. I thought she was going to scream and then drive away, but then she got out of her car. I didn’t say a word to her the entire time, even when she was screaming at me," she said.
The suspect was arrested later that night by Orillia OPP.
The Downtown Barrie BIA also tweeted about the "racist incident." Coun. Sergio Morales, who is the chair of the BIA, said he was "appalled" by what happened on Dec. 3.
