Officials condemn hate-motivated assault in downtown London, Ont., park

A London police hate crime officer is investigating a hate-motivated assault that happened over the weekend in a downtown park.

At approximately 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, a man was with his family in Ivey Park, in the area of King and Thames streets, when an unknown man approached them, police said. The suspect made derogatory comments towardthe man before proceeding to assault him.

In a social media post, the National Council of Canadian Muslims said it was "deeply horrified" to learn the victims were Muslim.

"They're shaken up," said Nawaz Tahir,a London lawyer who serves as spokesperson for HIKMAPublic Affairs Council, which has been in touch with a friend of the family. "Generally, when you go to the park your goal is to have a good time, and this just sort of shatters that."

The Muslim community is seeing an increase in a compromise of its safety and security, said Tahir, throughboth verbal and physical forms of hate, despite the City of London's comprehensive plan to dismantle Islamophobia.

"We'd like to see more action at the provincial and federal level," he said. "On both fronts, I think the response has been lacking. There are still so many recommendations from the national summit that took place in 2021 that are yet to be implemented. Things like hate crime legislation and the Our London Family Act not have been passed or brought back at all."

in June, police identified a suspect involved in an alleged hate-motivated arsonat a Muslim family's home in northwest London. It'sbelieved the suspect has since left the country.

On X, formerly Twitter, London Mayor Josh Morgan condemned Saturday'sincident.

"Islamophobia has absolutely no home in London or anywhere else," said Morgan."We must continue to condemn these incidents, and work to ensure everyone feels safe in our city."

The suspect remained in the area for around 20 minutes before leaving the park on a blue bike-style e-bike.Police were contacted. The victim sustained minor injuries and did not require medical attention.

The suspect has not been identified. He is described as male, white, around 40 years of age, wearing a black toque, black jacket, dark jeans and light-coloured sneakers.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact them.