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PrintToronto hate crimes report includes ‘Nazi,’ ‘shikse’ as victims
TORONTO (JTA) -- A "Nazi" and a "non-Jewish Shikse," a pejorative for a gentile woman, are among the victims listed on the latest hate crimes report issued by Toronto Police.
The report, which lists hate and bias crimes for 2009, shows an increase in "hate/bias occurrences" over the previous year from 153 to 174.
Jews were the top victims, with 52 incidents, followed by LBGT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders), with 26 incidents, and blacks, 24 incidents.
Mischief, usually graffiti, followed by assault and threatening, was the most common crime.
The Nazi and non-Jewish Shikse, along with "police," each were a victim in a single incident to which police responded last year.
The shikse incident occurred when the disapproving neighbor of a Jewish man who was dating a non-Jewish woman smashed the woman's window, the Canadian Jewish News reported. It was not known whether charges were filed against the attacker.
Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, which has long pressed for stronger hate crime laws, said those laws clearly define victim groups as falling under the headings of race, creed, color, nationality, sexual orientation "and other similar factors."
Referring to Nazis and shikses, Farber said "such groups do not fall under the victims definition of a hate crime law."
It is "almost silly to take groups out of thin air and decide to make them victims," he told JTA. "That's not how the law works. It makes anti-hate laws look absurd."
Acting Inspector Steve Irwin of the Toronto Police Service defended the inclusion of the unorthodox categories, telling the Canadian Jewish News that "Nazis" and
"shikses" were "affected by hate motivation." He added that "they were targeted as identifiable groups."
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