Made The National tonight too. The rest of Canada is once again reasured of their impression of those 'folks down the road'.
Extreme WTF: Cross Burning in NS
Monday, February 22 2010 at 10:23pm
#2
Monday, February 22 2010 at 10:29pm
#3
Yeah read about that earlier, not many things make you embarassed to be a member of the human race, but thats one of them.
And I couldn't help but laugh at the last quote "we are absolutely exploring the avenue that this may be a hate crime", sorry that they didn't make it more obvious for you.
Monday, February 22 2010 at 11:03pm
#4
I think they could only get 2 years for a hate crime like that, but 10 is max for criminal harrassment...
Tuesday, February 23 2010 at 8:20am
#5
Frightening and disappointing. I fell horrible for that poor family.
Tuesday, February 23 2010 at 8:32am
#6
It's breathtaking how fucked up some people can be. This happened in a peaceful little countryscape way way out in nowhere land... It's astounding how someone could have done this. I really hope they're caught and made a national example of.
Tuesday, February 23 2010 at 9:28am
#7
Yeah read about that earlier, not many things make you embarassed to be a member of the human race, but thats one of them.
My glass is half full but their never seems to be a lack of things that make me embarrassed to be a member of the human race. Enough of them that I end up shaking my head and turning the TV off or throwing the newspaper in the recycling more often than not.
Tuesday, February 23 2010 at 4:06pm
#8
a serious WTF embarrassing to be from Hants county
Tuesday, February 23 2010 at 8:43pm
#9
The highest rated comment under the story:
"Anyone who thinks that racsim is isolated to rural Nova Scotia is blind or ignorant. I have lived in Hants County all of my life and as a person of colour I have encountered much more racsim on my visits to Halifax and even more frequently in Toronto and Montreal.
Hants County has many families of colour, my family has lived in Hants County for 6 generations and this is a shocking crime. I have never, in all my families history, experienced anything even close to this.
I went to school in Hants County and my race has never been an issue or even a topic of discussion. I would never want to leave such a beautiful place with wonderful people but I do understand if the family is frightened and want to protect their children from further acts of violence.
The community will rally behind this family. People are already gathering information and putting out the word to find out who could have caused this horrible event.
Hants County will survive this but only when the people are caught and justice is handed down. Anyone who knows Shayne and his partner Michelle or their beautiful children will do anything they can to help. I hope justice is swift and harsh."
Wednesday, February 24 2010 at 11:27am
#10
Wednesday, February 24 2010 at 12:38pm
#11
Some proud mom's and dad's out there I'm sure.
Wednesday, February 24 2010 at 1:44pm
#12
Great to see the clampdown happen so quickly. Sure hope they get the book thrown at them hard enough to break the skin.
Uttering threats
264.1 (1) Every one commits an offence who, in any manner, knowingly utters, conveys or causes any person to receive a threat
(a) to cause death or bodily harm to any person;
Punishment
(2) Every one who commits an offence under paragraph (1)(a) is guilty of
(a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding eighteen months.
....Other sentencing principles
718.2 A court that imposes a sentence shall also take into consideration the following principles:
(a) a sentence should be increased or reduced to account for any relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances relating to the offence or the offender, and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing,
(i) evidence that the offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor,
I really hope someone gets shanked their first night...
This is the most shocking crime I've heard of in NS in a damn while, if not ever.
N.S. couple shaken by cross burning
RCMP investigate incident as hate crime
Last Updated: Monday, February 22, 2010 | 6:11 PM AT Comments230Recommend167
CBC News
Shayne Howe was frightened for his family when he saw a two-metre-tall cross burning on the front lawn of his Nova Scotia home and heard racial epithets uttered early Sunday morning.
Police said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Howe is black and his partner, Michelle Lyon, is white. The couple and their children live in a small community in Hants County, north of Halifax. Howe is the only black person in the community.
"I just seen a big cross out there, and it was on fire and it had the rope around the neck, and it was hanging down, and it was on fire. It was about seven feet tall," he said Monday.
"By the time I got outside, there was nobody around. All we heard was, 'Die, n----r, die.' I was scared for my kids and my life. I don't know what is going to happen next. If it's a joke, then I don't know what it is. I don't know how to take it."
Howe said when he saw the burning cross he thought of the Ku Klux Klan.
"What else can you think of?" he asked.
Family terrified
Lyon said the family was terrorized by the act.
"We were terrified, just terrified. We didn't know if they were still around the house, we didn't know if they were coming back, we didn't know why this had happened. We had no idea," she said.
"We're very well respected in the community. I've been here a long time and Shayne's been here for quite awhile now. Nothing of this sort has ever happened, so we were just kind of in awe and shock of the whole ordeal. It's like something you'd see in the movies, not real life."
Howe, who has lived in the community for six years, said he has never experienced this level of racism before.
"It's 2010. That's supposed to be gone. It wasn't even around when I was a kid," Howe said. "I got called a few names, big deal, but it wasn't nothing like this. That's not a joke to me, that's not a prank."
Howe said he considers the cross burning a threat but doesn't believe anyone in the community did it.
"I can't see it being a community thing. I'm respecting the community. If I'm outside, they're waving. There's absolutely no reason for anybody to do that," he said.
"If it's a hate crime, then I've got to pack up and get my family out out of here. It's not that I'm running, but I've got to protect my children."
Hate crime investigation
The first thing the family did Monday was look for a new home because they're afraid of what may happen next. Lyon said the family fears their house may be set on fire.
RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Brigdit Leger said police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
"In this case, with the burning of the cross, and the use of racial terms, we are absolutely exploring the avenue that this may be a hate crime," Leger said.
Police have no suspects yet, and anyone with information is asked to contact RCMP or Crime Stoppers.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/02/22/ns-cross-burning-h...