Strong case to be made for spitting incident to be considered hate crime, says researcher

An Alberta researcher says there's a strong argument to be made that a recent spitting incident involving a racial slur could be considered a hate crime.

On Saturday, a man was caught on video spitting on a woman and uttering a racist slur at her while he was cycling along a Calgarypathway in Inglewood.

Since the video went viral, Justin Williams, a former University of Calgary men's basketball manager, has been charged with three counts of assault after reports that he spat on multiple people.

Man spits on passerby, calls her a racial slur

4 years ago

Duration 0:19

Police are investigating an incident shared on social media Saturday that shows a man spitting on a woman and using a racial slur shortly afterwards.

He was also charged with one count of possession of a weapon dangerous to the public.

Calgary police say the hate crime unit is investigating.

IrfanChaudhry,a human rights, equity and inclusion specialist, and a hate crime researcherat MacEwan University, says variousaspects are looked at includingbias indicators when investigatingalleged hate crimes.

"Was there something present within the context ofa situation that could lead police or witnesses or others or even the victim themselves to perceive that it was motivated by hate or bias?" he said.

"I think in this context, because we have video evidenceand we have a number of witnesses, a strong argumentcan be made for it being referred as [a hate crime]."

He saysbecause the spitting aspect fulfils the criminal element, theuse of the racial slur, and the target of the slur, could make it a hate crime.

He says that aspect of the crime can also show up during sentencing as well since a judge can asses whether bias or prejudice was a motive.

Chaudhry says the viral nature of the video was also interesting.

"Within the span of a day and a half, charges have been laid, and I think further are coming. So a really interesting example of what we see happening right now."

He says it can often bechallenging when an incident is notcaught on camera.

"It almost becomes they-said-versus-they-said scenario," he explained.

In the case of the recent spitting incident, he saysthough it's an "unfortunate example" of the prejudice people have in the province,it's unique in thatit was captured.

Tracking hate incidents

Chaudhry says it's also important to keep track ofincidents that don't technically have a criminal element to help build a sense of "everyday acts of racial discrimination" that are still persistent in the province.

He does research with StopHateAB.ca, a website that was started in 2017 andtracks incidents of racism that might otherwise go unreported. The site is run in partnership with the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee.

The website is a space where people can document hate incidents that don't meet the threshold of criminal activity but are still motivated by hate or bias toward identifiable groups cases that sometimes go untracked.

Using an online form, users can document hate incidents, which helps build amap of documented hate incidents. The information generated from the website goes toward outreach and education initiatives of the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee, according to the site.

Chaudhry says that since 2017, when the website began, over half of the reports of hate tracked on the site are related to race or ethnicity, and most commonly, the incidents occurred in public spaces.

"Oftentimes when you try to counter these types of incidents, you might get certain officials saying, 'well prove that it's happening' or 'give us data,'" he said.

"This tool is really a starting point to be able to provide that kind of data."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.