N.S. man facing charge after incident in Halifax with woman wearing hijab
Police say they located accused with the help of a witness and security video
A Nova Scotia man has been accused of a hate crime for an incident that happened on Monday afternoon outside a public library in a Halifax suburb.
RCMP say the 53-year-old man confronted a 21-year-old woman who was wearing a hijab. She was not physically harmed in the incident.
RCMP Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay said Thursday that police were able to locate the man with the help of a witness and security video.
"In the past year we have seen similar incidents targeting various identifiable groups in the province and sometimes we seek information from the public if we don't have any suspects," Tremblay said.
"In this case, we were able to locate a suspect quickly and arrest them."
Tremblay said police aren't naming the man for now because he has not been arraigned. He said that will happen sometime before his first court appearance in June.
Tremblay said it's important for police to gather extra information in cases like this.
"Anyone who feels they might have been a victim of an incident and believes it was hate-related [should] mention that," he said.
"It's information that needs to be documented in the investigations and it's taken into consideration when it comes at sentencing time."
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