Anti-Islamic graffiti sprayed outside north Edmonton daycare for second time in two months
The Edmonton Islamic Academy's daycare was vandalized again last week with hateful messaging. Police investigate the earlier June incident as a hate crime; the latest incident remains under review.
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Anti-Islamic graffiti appeared outside a north Edmonton Islamic daycare for the second time in two months, renewing concern about a pattern of hate-motivated vandalism in the community.
In June, the message "Protect women. Rise against Islam" was sprayed in red lettering on a white half-wall facing the Edmonton Islamic Academy's daycare. Police's hate crime unit investigated that incident.
Last week, fresh graffiti appeared at the same location: "Jesus loves you. Muhammad lies to you," along with a heart symbol. The graffiti remained visible Thursday morning when reporters visited the scene. Edmonton police said they were unable to provide details on the latest vandalism by late Thursday.
Hate crimes researcher Irfan Chaudhry at MacEwan University said messages like these are difficult to prosecute as hate-motivated crimes under Canadian law, even though they are clearly harmful to the targeted community. "The message might seem harmful to some—especially the targeted community," Chaudhry said. "On a more objective frame of reference, the language used and the context used wouldn't hit the threshold of a hate-motivated act. But the criminal act would be there for the vandalism. That's what the police would be assessing."
The National Council of Canadian Muslims said such incidents are part of a troubling trend. "We've seen in aggregate, in the past month or so, one—if not more—such incidents like vandalism, threats, violent attacks per day," said Steven Zhou with the NCCM.
Zhou called for federal action on online hate speech and urged police across the country to step up community engagement to combat such incidents. Last week, Edmonton police had posted on social media asking residents to report online hate speech—a move that drew criticism from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, who said it could threaten free speech and that police should focus on violent crimes instead.
Chaudhry countered that raising awareness of hate speech is important and that all levels of government need to work together on the issue.
The facts
How is the June vandalism being treated by police?
Edmonton police's hate crime unit investigated the June incident as a hate crime.
What did hate crimes researcher Irfan Chaudhry say about prosecuting such vandalism?
Irfan Chaudhry at MacEwan University said messages like these are difficult to prosecute as hate-motivated crimes under Canadian law, though the vandalism itself would be a criminal act that police would assess.
