Around 10:30 p.m. on July 9, 2022, we received a call regarding an Assault that had previously occurred at a convenience store/gas station on Lasalle Boulevard.

Information provided was that two individuals had been in a verbal argument where a man made racially charged comments towards another customer resulting in a physical altercation between the two individuals outside of the store.

Due to the hate-based nature of this incident, the matter was assigned to a Detective in the Major Crime Section of our Criminal Investigation Division who is specifically trained as a Hate Crime and Hate-bias/Hate-motivated Investigator.

As a result of the investigation, the 31 year old man has been charged with the following offences under the Criminal Code of Canada;

  • Assault with a Weapon
  • Assault
  • Cause a Disturbance

The man was released on a Promise to Appear. His name cannot be released as the information has not yet been sworn to through the Court process.

Through consultation with the Crown Attorney’s Office, it has been determined that the charges were motivated by Hate. As a Hate-motivated incident, this will be taken into account during sentencing within the Court process. We will continue to work with the Crown throughout this case while providing support to the Survivor and their family.

We know that Hate Crimes and Hate-bias incidents are extremely under reported and we are working hard to change that. The Greater Sudbury Police Service takes reports of Hate-motivated crime and Hate-bias incidents very seriously and we recognize the impact on and pain felt by community members when there is evidence of hatred. We want to assure you that we are committed to investigating these situations thoroughly. We take these matters seriously.

Through our Diversity Advisory Committee (DAC), Officers have been invited to present on Hate-motivated/bias incident at various diverse community engagement events allowing for personal interactions with diverse community members. This is one step toward building trust within diverse communities hopefully making community members more comfortable when reporting incidents to police.

Although, Hate-motivated/bias incidents are underreported, we continue to work with our internal Members, community members and community partners to build Public Trust through transparency and community engagement through education and awareness.

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