Canada: Scissors attack on Muslim girl in hijab 'did not happen,' police concludes

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Canadian Muslim organizations expressed concerns, saying they feared others who experience hate crimes may be reluctant to report them out of worry that they will not be believed.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Canadian Press
By The Canadian Press | January 15, 2018

"We investigated, we put together a significant amount of evidence and we came to the conclusion that what was described did not happen."

An 11-year-old girl's claim that a scissors-wielding man approached her on the way to school and cut her hijab has turned out to be untrue, Toronto police said Monday as they closed their investigation into what was suspected to be a hate crime.

The alleged incident, which was reported on Friday, made international headlines and had drawn swift public condemnation from the prime minister, Ontario's premier and Toronto's mayor.

On Monday, police said their investigation concluded with no charges laid and no consequences for the girl.

"These allegations were extremely serious and not surprisingly, they received national and international attention," police spokesman Mark Pugash said in an interview. "We investigated, we put together a significant amount of evidence and we came to the conclusion that what was described did not happen."

Pugash said police don't know how the story escalated. He stressed that it's "very unusual" for someone to make such false allegations and said he hopes it will not discourage others from coming forward.

Canadian Muslim organizations expressed similar concerns, saying they feared others who experience hate crimes may be reluctant to report them out of worry that they will not be believed.

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Read original post here: Canada: Toronto police say hijab-cutting incident didn't happen, investigation closed


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