2 men charged after woman trapped in tipped

2 men charged after woman trapped in tipped-over portable toilet in Calgary

Calgary police allege comments were made about victim's gender and ethnicity before assault

Charges have been laid against two men following what police are calling a hate-motivated assault in which a woman was trapped inside a portable washroom after the culprits tipped it over.

The assault occurred in July outside a restaurant on Macleod Trail, police said in a release Wednesday.

Bystanders helped free the woman and she was treated for exposure to waste and chemicals.

Following an investigation by the hate crime prevention team, the men, who are from Calgary and Kimberley, B.C., were identified.

The two 24-year-old men have been charged with assault causing bodily harm and have pending court dates on Oct. 9 and Nov. 3 respectively.

Police allege the pair made comments about the victim's gender and ethnicity prior to the assault, leading investigators to deem hate as a factor.

Evidence that hate was a motivation is not part of the formal charge but it can be considered by the courts and factor into sentencing.

Bronwyn Bragg, a professor of geography and environment at the University of Lethbridge, says these types of crimes are typically underreported, with only about one in five making it to police.

“It's really only the most violent crimes, hate crimes, that are actually reported, and even those are likely underreported,” Bragg said.

“It really represents just the tip of the iceberg of what people's lived experience is with everyday hate-motivated commentary, xenophobic commentary, and hateful commentary in their lives.”

Iman Bukhari, board chair of the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation, a non-profit focused on anti-racism work across Canada, says the numbers are not the full picture.

“We're actually only looking at what people actually felt safe or able enough to report.”

Bukhari says research shows that people do not report due to “fear of retaliation, language barriers, mistrust of police, and in many communities, a belief that nothing will be done.”

Other hate-motivated incidents — like slurs, harassment, intimidation or vandalism — are also not represented in statistics because they aren’t classified as crimes, she said.

“There are so many community organizations that have been documenting these incidents precisely because the official systems don't,” said Bukhari. “The gap between what the communities experience and what the government actually counts is actually enormous.”

To solve that, Buhkari says reporting mechanisms need to go beyond “just a police phone line” and be culturally safe, trauma-informed and accessible. “Research shows that when people use community-based reporting models, the numbers actually go up, not because hate increased, but because trust increased.”

Calgary Police Service Sgt. Chelsea Francois acknowledged the underreporting issue but says reporting has been up this year and a new online tool may be helping.

"We have seen a 26-per cent increase in reporting from January until June of this year," said Francois. "We are expecting those numbers to actually increase again because our online reporting system opened for hate crimes and hate incidents in June."

Bradley van Paridon is a Calgary based journalist covering science and local news. He can be reached at bradley.van.paridon@cbc.ca