Vancouver Police say a man broke his leg after allegedly being thrown to the ground for asking anti-gay demonstrators to stop chanting.
In an email, VPD Spokesperson Sgt. Aaron Roed tells Vancouver Is Awesome that officers responded to a disturbance in the area of Davie and Thurlow Streets on Saturday, Aug. 22 around 8 p.m. He says that a group of people using a microphone and amplifier were preaching about religion and anti-gay chants.
"A short time after the preaching started one individual approached the group and asked them to stop the anti-gay chants and to stop speaking into the microphone," writes Roed. "A disturbance ensued and the individual is suspected to have been thrown to the ground, where they unfortunately broke their leg."
Roed adds that two men from the group who were chanting were arrested for aggravated assault and mischief and transported to jail. Since then, both men have been released with conditions to attend court at a later date. They must not have contact with the victim, and are not permitted to go into the area bordered by Comox Street to the North, Burrard Street to the East, Denman Street to the West and Beach Avenue to the South, (this includes English Bay Beach and Sunset Beach).
In a series of Tweets, Sportsnets 650 host Justin Morissette writes that "anti-gay evangelical bullies in the West End" purposefully broke his leg because he told them to stop chanting. He adds that he is going to, "have metal plates in my leg for the rest of my life."
I stood up to anti-gay evangelical bullies in the West End this evening, and they purposefully broke my leg for the trouble. I don’t know why I did this. It felt like the right thing to do and no one else would. I’m going to have metal plates in my leg for the rest of my life.
— Justin Morissette šš» (@JustinMoris) August 23, 2020
In another Tweet, Morissette writes, "I’m only tweeting about this because there have been too many instances of unchecked racism and during the pandemic, videos of people spewing hate while everyone just sits there and ignores it."
Following the incident, Morisette was transported to hospital for treatment.
I’m still standing pic.twitter.com/Pe1AsbD7uO
— Justin Morissette šš» (@JustinMoris) August 24, 2020
VPD is requesting that if there is any additional witnesses to the assault to please contact VPD officers to provide additional information.
"VPD will not tolerate any type of hate crimes and will investigate all reports of hate crimes or suspected hate crimes that happen in the City of Vancouver. Public safety will always remain a priority for the VPD and we want everyone to feel safe and comfortable in their communities and neighbourhoods they visit," writes Roed.
VPD is recommending charges of Aggravated assault and mischief. VPD hate crime investigators have been notified and will be investigating this file for any hate related information about the incident.
