Tory MP Bernier criticized for saying ‘more diversity’ will ‘destroy’ what makes Canada great, Rachel Aiello, CTV News, 2018-08-13

Outspoken Conservative MP and failed leadership contender Maxime Bernier is facing criticism from within his caucus, and beyond, over a series of tweets accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of fostering a “cult of diversity” that he believes will destroy the country.

In a six-tweet thread posted Sunday evening, the Quebec MP says that more diversity will “divide us into little tribes” and bring “distrust, social conflict, and potentially violence.”

[…]

He argues that “Trudeau’s extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity” will divide Canadians into “political clienteles” that can be bought with taxpayer money and special privileges.

In subsequent tweets, Bernier sought to emphasize that his issue is with “more diversity” and “ever more diversity,” which he says Trudeau is proposing with “radical multiculturalism.”

“Canada has always been a diverse country and this is part of who we are. I love this Canada. But there is a difference between recognizing diversity and pushing for ever more of it. Something infinitely diverse has no core identity and ceases to exist,” he said.

Of course Bernier is right in his criticism of the vapid slogans which regularly spew from the mouth of Justin Trudeau. The Trudeau cult of “diversity” constitutes clientelism—i.e. pandering to various communities, especially religious ones, in order to garner votes—mixed with a substantial dose of airheaded identitarianism which is currently very much in fashion. But the Conservative Party also practises clientelism; hence the embarrassment which Bernier’s comments have caused his party. Furthermore, the radical multiculturalism practised by the Trudeau Liberals is incompatible with secularism, but the Conservatives do not support secularism either, as they are too closely tied to evangelical Christians in the Canadian west.

Une guerre que le Canada doit gagner (A War Which Canada Must Win), Loïc Tassé, Journal de Montréal, 2018-08-11.

Considering the extreme reaction of Saudia Arabia to Canada’s declaration criticizing human rights abuses in that country, and in particular the Saudi decision to boycott Canadian wheat and barley while continuing to sell oil to Canada, journalist Loïc Tassé takes the position that the Canadian government should respond with similarly strong measures. Why continue to buy anything from the Saudis since they have cut off all their purchases from Canada? The Saudi regime is as disreputable and ignominious as was the South African regime under apartheid. Canada should simply boycott Saudi Arabia completely.

See also:

• What Canada should do about Saudi Arabia, Irwin Cotler, The Globe and Mail, 2018-08-10.
  (The author is international legal counsel to Raif Badawi and Ensaf Haidar.
  He takes a more moderate position than that of Loïc Tassé described above.)

HijabPublicity Stunt? Gap Ad With Hijab-Wearing Girl Stirs Twitter Controversy, Sputnik News, 2018-08-10.

Users seem to have divided opinions on the brand’s new back-to-school campaign. Some lambast the hijab as a tool of oppression, while others believe that the ad is playing the diversity card as part of a marketing plan.

Gap Kids has released a back-to-school commercial showing a bunch of teenagers wearing denim clothes; one of the models is wearing a hijab.

The advert has been widely praised online. […] Some users, however, have been apparently dissatisfied with the fashion retailer. In a handful of critical tweets, netizens have slammed the hijab as a choice imposed on young female Muslims.

In order to increase profits, this clothing company has become complicit with political Islam in its campaign to normalize the wearing of the veil, to make it commonplace. The hijab-wearing girl in the ad is very young, too young to be wearing a hijab, too young to make an informed choice about such a loaded symbol. Veiling young girls for any extended period of time is a form of child abuse.

Three petitions (in French) against Gap’s shameful ad campaign:

• Fillette voilée chez Gap Kids — Le voile n’est pas un jeu d’enfant ! (Young girl veiled in Gap Kids ad; The veil is not a child’s game!), Féministes laïques, change.org.
• Le hijab n’est pas un jeu d’enfant ! (The hijab is not a child’s game!), Anne-Marie Bilodeau, change.org.
• Halte à la maltraitance des fillettes ! Danger du voilement pour développement et santé. (Stop mistreating young girls! Veiling is dangerous for child development and health.), Michèle Vianès, change.org.

Quebec is Currently Leading a Secular Revolution in Canada. Here’s How., Scott Jacobsen, Conatus News, 2018-07-10

The text of the interview is also available locally on this site.

Iranian woman who protested headscarf gets 20-year sentence, Associated Press, 2018-07-1.0

An Iranian woman who removed her obligatory Islamic headscarf out of protest in December says she has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Shapark Shajarizadeh posted on her personal website that she had been jailed for “opposing the compulsory hijab” and “waving a white flag of peace in the street.” There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials. […]

Shajarizadeh, 42, was released on bail in late April. Her current whereabouts were unknown. In Iran, women showing their hair in public face penalties ranging from a $25 fine to prison time.

See also:

• Iranian woman ‘sentenced to 20 years in prison’ for removing headscarf in protest, Samuel Osborne, Independent, 2018-07-10.

The AHA (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) Foundation, which campaigns against female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female excision, announces that New Hampshire has recently criminalizes the excision of young girls and thus becomes the 27^th state of the United States to do so. But that means that 23 states still have no legislation banning that atrocious practice. Furthermore, even among the 27 which ban it, the legislation requires strengthening in some cases.

See:

• FGM Legislation by State, AHA Foundation

From an announcement on Facebook

Great news! In the court challenge to the Religious Neutrality Bill 62, PDF Québec has been recognized as intervener.

As you have learned from media reports, the Superior Court has maintained the suspension of the article of Bill which states that public services much be offered and received with the face visible.

PDF Québec has just been recognized by the Court as intervener in this case. Our goal: defend women’s right to equality and the religious neutrality of the state, by preventing recognition of the wearing of the niqab as compatible with those two issues.

The cause will be heard in early August 2018.

Excellent news! Bravo to the feminist group PDF Québec (For the Rights of Women, Quebec). We must not allow the Islamist veil to be imposed. We must continue to fight against the ridiculous notion that wearing that banner of political Islam is a “right” everywhere and at all times.

Wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi calls for burqa ban in Ontario, Rahul Kalvapalle, Global News, 2018-07-01

The wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has called on Ontario Premier Doug Ford to ban the use of Islamic face coverings in public places. Ensaf Haidar, who along with her three children became a Canadian citizen on Canada Day, took to Twitter to urge Ford to follow Quebec’s lead and outlaw the burqa and niqab from government settings, schools, banks, hospitals and public transportation. […]

In a statement, Haidar told Global News that she wanted to use her first day as a Canadian citizen to raise awareness about the plight of women forced to abide by Sharia, or traditional Islamic law.

“As a refugee in Quebec and Canada I have noticed the fast growth of Islamist groups loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Saudi clergy imposing the Burqa and enforcing Niqab on girls and women as political flags to mark jihadi territory. […] on the first day as a Canadian I have raised the issue of banning the Burqa and Niqab in Ontario as I feel Premier Ford is a man who will listen to my plea and end the war by deception being waged by Islamists against Canadian values.”

Here is Ms. Haidar’s tweet:

The response from Twitter was mixed. Although Ms. Haidar received many favorable responses, she also received hostile reactions from those who are dupes of the pro-veil propaganda from the Canadian government and several federal political parties.

See also:

• Wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi sworn in as Canadian citizen, Morgan Lowrie, Canadian Press, 2018-07-01

Denmark Talks (Reluctantly) About a Ban on Circumcising Boys, Martin Selsoe Sorensen, New York Times, 2018-06-02

In Denmark, any proposal that can gather 50,000 signatures on Parliament’s official petition website is legally entitled to a debate and vote. A citizens’ petition demanding a minimum age of 18 for circumcision to protect “children’s fundamental rights” reached that threshold on Friday. […]

“It will put children’s rights ahead of their parents’ religious rights,” said Naser Khader, a member of Parliament and spokesman on human rights and legal affairs for the Conservative Party, which is a junior partner in the governing coalition. […]

A similar measure has passed an initial parliamentary vote in Iceland, but it is yet to become law and might never do so.

The Danish proposal is unlikely to achieve a majority vote in Parliament, but one recent survey, by the polling company Megafon for the television network TV2, found that 83 percent of voters supported a ban on circumcising boys. Political support for the measure has horrified many Danish Jews and Muslims — the operation is relatively uncommon in Denmark, and carried out almost exclusively for religious reasons. […] A string of Danish organizations working on health or children’s rights discourage circumcision on ethical grounds, […]

The United States Embassy in Denmark has raised concerns about the anti-circumcision proposal “from the perspective of freedom of religion,” according to a statement given by its first secretary and public affairs officer, Daniel J. Ernst, to the daily newspaper Politiken. “While the American government can’t tell Denmark how to legislate on male circumcision, it is making its position clear,” he wrote.

Iceland Plans to Ban Circumcision, Jóhann Páll Ástvaldsson, Iceland Review, 2018-03-29.

Iceland made headlines around the world as a proposed bill to ban the circumcision of young males raised attention. Circumcision of young male has featured prominently in the national debate recently due to the bill. The proposed bill claims that non-medical circumcision of boys violates their human rights, as they have no say in the decision. Circumcision of young females has been banned since 2005, and the bill proposes that the law should also include a ban on the circumcision of young males. The bill has raised quite the furore as both Jewish and Muslim religious leaders have denounced it.

[…] public opinion in Iceland is generally positive towards the bill. The thinking goes so that adults should not affect young children’s lives with a decision that they do not have a say in. Furthermore, the procedure could affect the health of the child, as there is some danger of an infection, or further complications with the surgery. It is first and foremost an issue of protecting the child as the operation is an irredeemable operation that the children have no say in.

The bill has not been without its detractors as they claim it would stifle their religious freedom. […]

Bravo! Genital mutilation should be strictly banned, for boys as well as for girls. It is completely unacceptable that religions be allowed to impose their practices in violation of the physical integrity of children.

See also:

• The Banning of Circumcision is Not Religious Discrimination, Jackson Doughart.

Denmark becomes latest European country to ban full Islamic face veil in public spaces , Telegraph, 2018-05-31.

The Danish parliament on Thursday passed a law banning the Islamic full-face veil in public spaces, becoming the latest European country to do so.

The legislation takes effect on August 1^st.

The courage of the Danish government must be recognized. This ban is a strong measure as it applies in public spaces, not just in public services. Nevertheless, it is certainly preferable to the complacency and the crass illogic of the Canadian government which not only permits religious symbols everywhere, even in the RCMP, before the courts and in state ceremonies, but in addition even celebrates them!

See also:

• Restrictions on Face-Coverings & Religious Symbols

The federal government has rejected parliamentary petition e-763, lauched by AFT to request the repeal of the religious exception, i.e. paragraph 319(3)(b), in the Canadian law against hate propaganda (in the Criminal Code). Here is the essential part of the response to petition e-753 which we received from the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould:

The Government does not agree with the proposal to repeal paragraph 319(3)(b) of the Criminal Code.

Paragraph 319(3)(b) provides a defence to the crime of wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group for any person who, in good faith, expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text. There are also three other defences to this crime, which are found in paragraphs 319(3)(a)(c) and (d) of the Criminal Code.

In R. v. Keegstra, [1990] 3 SCR 697, the Supreme Court of Canada examined these defences. The Court said that the three defences which include elements of good faith or honest belief–namely, paragraphs 319(3)(b), (c) and (d) –seemed to negate the mens rea or mental fault requirement for the offence, for only rarely would a person who intends to promote hatred be acting in good faith or upon honest belief. The Court also said that the defences found in subsection 319(3) reflect a commitment to the idea that an individual’s freedom of expression will not be curtailed in borderline cases.

We of Atheist Freethinkers are currently preparing our reply.

See also:

• The AFT Petition Against the Religious Exception in Canada’s Hate Propaganda Law is Presented to Parliament
• Blog 088: Religious Privileges in Federal Legislation
• AFT launches parliamentary petition against the religious exception in federal Hate Propaganda law
• Repeal 319-3-b

Actually, ‘freedom from religion’ is a human right, IHEU tells Vatican at the UN, Elizabeth O’Casey, IHEU, 2018-03-09

Humanists at the UN have today strongly rejected claims from the Vatican delegation that ‘freedom from religion’ is not a human right.

In its first statement to the 37th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council this afternoon, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) was responding to comments made last Friday by the Vatican delegation. During a discussion (video) of the latest report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Vatican representative, Ivan Jurkovic, had disputed that ‘freedom from religion’ is covered by international law, saying that “Of the utmost concern, the use of the term freedom from religion, which is not contemplated in the international instruments, reveals a patronising idea of religion, going beyond the mandate of the special rapporteur.”

Delivering IHEU’s response today, IHEU Director of Advocacy, Elizabeth O’Casey, corrected the Vatican (known as Holy See in international fora), listing the established rights which constitute freedom from religion, and highlighted why freedom from religion is so necessary for those professing no religious beliefs around the world.

By rejecting the concept of freedom FROM religion, the Vatican shows that it has no respect whatsoever for the freedom of conscience of anyone. It is as if the Vatican were competing with governments of Muslim-majority countries which criminalize apostasy (i.e. leaving one’s religion), sometimes even punishing it with the death penalty, to see who can be the greatest destroyer of liberty. This illustrates that keeping religion out of politics—in this case, making sure that the Vatican and the Catholic Church keep their noses out of government—is so essential for human rights to be respected.

Bravo to the IHEU for reprimanding the Vatican and for asserting the importance of freedom FROM religion.

Égypte : les athées seront-ils bientôt mis en prison ? (Egypt: Will Atheists Soon be Imprisoned?), France 2 Television, 2018-02-27

A French television network reports that Egypt may soon pass legislation which would criminalize non-belief and punish it with fines or even prison.

In Egypt, everyone must declare their religion to authorities and that religion appears on each person’s compulsory identity card. The country is 90% Muslim and Islam is the state religion. Christianity and Judaism are recognized, but there is no tolerance whatsoever of atheism. To question the existence of god is considered blasphemous and atheism is considered to be a form of extremism!

This is an extreme expression of atheophobia, converging with the absolute ban on apostasy which is a core tenet of Islam. The result is the absolute negation of freedom of conscience for citizens of Egypt.

See also:

• Atheists face prison in Egypt as Non-Belief may be made illegal., Guerilla Wire.
• In the News: Egypt to Ban Atheism

Quebec nixes rule forcing political candidates to remove head coverings, CBC News, 2018-02-21

Quebec’s chief electoral officer is changing a regulation that prevented people who wear religious head coverings from running for provincial office. For nearly 30 years, all potential candidates have been required to submit a photo that shows their hair. The photos will appear on ballots used during the upcoming provincial election, scheduled for Oct. 1. But on Tuesday, a National Assembly committee gave its approval to chief electoral officer Pierre Reid to change that regulation. […]

All parties at the National Assembly say they approve of the change. […] One restriction remains: candidates must show their faces.

No political party in Quebec’s National Assembly opposed this decision by Elections Québec. Previously, candidates were required to have both head and face uncovered. But henceforth, only the face need be exposed. This is yet another step away from secularism. It is like an extension of the recently adopted Bill 62 which allows almost all religious symbols in Quebec public services.

Abortion Debate in Argentina Gains Momentum as Macri Says He Won’t Block It in Congress, The Bubble, 2018-02-23

The Casa Rosada has indicated it will not attempt to block a debate in Congress on proposals to decriminalize and legalize abortions. […]

Abortion is currently illegal and considered a crime in Argentina except in circumstances of a health threat to a woman’s life, cases of pregnancy following rape or sexual abuse of a woman with a mental disability. Lawmakers seeking decriminalization in the coming weeks will table a bill that decriminalizes abortions during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The reintroduction of the bill, the seventh time it has been submitted to Congress, is necessary as each bill expires after two years if it is not passed into law. […]

According to Argentina’s Health Ministry, between 370,000 and 522,000 abortions are performed annually, most of them considered illegal. […]

ARGENTINA – Macri gives a green light to open the debate on abortion law reform, International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, 2018-02-23

In 2016, 46 women died from unsafe, illegal abortions in Argentina. All of them could have been avoided. Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina, is against abortion, but all around him there is a very strong movement and a new generation that are pushing for Argentina to become a leader in the region on abortion law reform, as they were with gay marriage. The abortion rights movement in Argentina seeks to go well beyond Chile and calls for a law that allows abortion on request in the first 14 weeks.

In the Congress, where resistance to change and the pressures of the Catholic church still have weight, the pressure is growing every day. Last weekend it exploded in a cheerful and organised manner in front of the Congress building and on social media with the slogan #AbortoLegalYa (Legal abortion already!) that gained the support of many famous politicians and journalists, a senior judge, a TV star and some important members of the Government.

The new law, if adopted, would grant every woman the right to decide voluntarily to terminate a pregnancy during the first 14 weeks of gestation.

See also:

• Interview (in Spanish) with Brenda Austin, one of the authors of the new law: El debate en el Congreso, El aborto es radical, Revista Anfibia, Universidad Nacional de San Martín.

Le président de l’Association des Libres penseurs tunisiens agressé, la Fédération française de la Libre Pensée adresse une lettre ouverte à l’ambassadeur de Tunisie en France (President of Tunisian Freethinkers Assaulted, French Freethought Federation Writes to the Tunisian Ambassador in France), Taieb Khouni, HuffPost Tunisie, 2018-02-26

Click to view full size

On February 21^st in Tunis, Hatem Limam, president of the Tunisian freethought organization ALP, was assaulted openly in the street by individuals who followed him to his home and caused him multiple wounds and contusions. The French Freethought Federation (FNLP) has written an open letter to the Tunisian ambassador in France, Abdelaziz Rassâa, condemning the attack and asking the ambassador to urge the Tunisian government to take all necessary measures to protect freethinkers in that country and to see that the perpetrators are brought to justice. The ALP, which promotes atheism and secularism, was officially recognized in October 2017.

The IAFT (International Association of Free Thought), KLF (Kazimierz Lyszczynski Foundation, Poland), IHEU (International Humanist and Ethical Union) and other organizations have also expressed outrage at the attack and solidarity with Tunisian freethinkers.

See also:

• Facebook Page of the Association des Libres penseurs (Association of Freethinkers, ALP) of Tunisia.
• KLF Statement for protection of Tunisian freethinkers, Kazimierz Lyszczynski Foundation, 2018-02-23.

Click to view video
An elderly Iranian woman removes
and agitates her veil in protest.
She is apparently not
one of those arrested.

Iranian police arrest 29 for involvement in hijab protests, Eliza Mackintosh, CNN, 2018-02-03.

Police in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have arrested 29 people for their involvement in protests against the country’s compulsory headscarf law. Women across Iran have been removing their headscarves in public to protest Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. Videos and photos shared on social media have shown demonstrators standing on utility boxes on street sidewalks, defiantly waving their hijabs.

Tehran police suggested that their actions were incited by foreigners, saying those arrested were “deceived” into removing their hijabs, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported. The 29 protesters have been transferred to judicial authorities, the report said.

Masih Alinejad, the Iranian activist behind the “White Wednesday” social media campaign against mandatory hijabs, who is now based in the US, told CNN that the movement has not been influenced from abroad. “This is a campaign that’s been going on for years and years. The women of Iran have long been ignored. We’re just giving them a platform.” News of the arrests came just days after the release of Vida Mohaved, a woman who was detained in December after removing her headscarf at an anti-regime protest. The wave of anti-goverment demonstrations last month was sparked by concerns over rising living costs and a stagnant economy, but also provided an opening for Iranian women to push for equal rights. Women have been required to wear the hijab since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Courageous women, who deserve our full support and respect. The response of Iranian authorities is ridiculous in the extreme, accusing the protesting women of ignorance and foreign influence.

See also:

• Arrests fail to stop Iranian women from raising hijabs in protest, Jonathon Gatehouse, CBC News, 2018-02-02
• Iranian women protest hijab as defiant headscarf demonstrations spread, Samuel Osborne, Independent, 2018-01-30
• Elderly Iranian woman removes veil, Tweet of Tarek Fatah, 2018-01-31

Top court deals blow to Indigenous peoples, Nathan VanderKlippe, The Globe and Mail, 2017-11-02

The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to grant special protection for religious freedom for aboriginal peoples, ruling that a private ski resort in British Columbia can be built on a site sacred to an Indigenous community. The Ktunaxa Nation had opposed a resort on Crown land near their community in southeastern British Columbia, arguing that it would affect a grizzly-bear habitat and drive away the Grizzly Bear Spirit essential to their faith.

[…] seven judges of nine […] said the Ktunaxa claim fell entirely outside of the Canadian notion of freedom of religion, as established in previous Charter cases, which protects only the right to hold and manifest beliefs. “In short, the Charter protects the freedom to worship, but does not protect the spiritual focal point of worship.”

Read more ›

Click to view full size
Proclamation, City of Markham, Ontario

To the long list of dupes of political Islam, we can now add the name of the mayor Frank Scarpitti of the Ontario city of Markham, who has issued a proclamation, dated 2018-01-29, in which he declares that “Islamophobia, like all other forms of racism, hate, xenophobia, and bigotry, has no place in the City of Markham.” Whatever his intentions may be, the result of the mayor’s proclamation is to validate the use of one of the favourite propaganda tools of Islamofascists—the expression “Islamophobia”—whose purpose is to stigmatize any criticism of their ideology and of the religion Islam which they exploit in order to promote that ideology. Another sad day for Canada.

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Un an après l’attentat de la mosquée de Québec, apaiser le climat social (One Year After the Quebec City Mosque Attack, Social Climate Needs Calm), Ferid Chikhi, Nadia El-Mabrouk, Ali Kaidi & Leila Lesbet of the Association québécoise des Nord-Africains pour la laïcité (AQNAL: Quebec Association of North-Africans for Secularism), Le Devoir, 2018-01-25

Since the odious attack which occurred at the Quebec City mosque a year ago, something in the social fabric has been broken. Immediately following the murders, defamatory publications showing Quebec personalities with blood-stained hands began to circulate on the internet, and thinly-veiled accusations were made, linking the attack with secularists. In forums everywhere, Quebeckers were accused of racism and Islamophobia, and a consultation on racism and discrimination was announced by the government a few months later. This festival of confusion has simply polluted the social climate, polarized the debate and increased hostility towards Islam and Muslims. […]

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Un drame et son instrumentalisation (A Tragedy and Its Exploitation), Djemila Benhabib, le Nouvelliste, 2018-01-26

We still do not know the motives of Alexandre Bissonnette, the presumed murderer, whose trial begins on March 26^th 2018. Nevertheless, Islamist lobbyists, politicians at every level, the media and elites are doing everything in their power to impose upon us an enormous collective guilt, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the true frame of mind of Quebeckers who have repeatedly expressed their deep compassion for the victims of this horrible tragedy and their families, as well as their total rejection of all forms of violence. But no, this is not enough. Now we are being told that, in addition, we must work to expunge from our society a supposed pathology which has spread among us like an evil virus. It is time for redemption. Quebeckers must atone for a crime which they did not commit and beg forgiveness for a moral turpitude whose nature is a mystery to them. Why?

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Attentat à la mosquée de Québec, Il n’y a pas d’islamophobie au Québec, selon une proche d’une victime (Attack on Quebec City Mosque, There is no Islamophobia in Quebec, Says Relative of Victim), TVA Nouvelles, 2018-01-23

A year after the terrorist attack on the Quebec City Mosque, the debate about the proposal for a national day against Islamophobia continues to generate debate.

Appearing on the “Denis Lévesque” show, a relative of one of the victims of the shooting denounces the attitude of Muslims communities who demand that such a day be instituted.

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Hijab scissor attack against 11-year-old did not occur: Police, Jenna Moon, Toronto Star, 2018-01-15

Police say the events described did not occur. […]

Toronto Police say they have concluded that an incident reported Friday in which an eleven-year-old girl’s hijab was cut as she walked to school, did not happen. Police had been investigating the alleged incident as a hate crime and now say their investigation is concluded. […]

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