Sikh School Student Beaten, Pepper-Sprayed in Canada in Apparent Case of Hate Crime – News18

A Sikh high school student was assaulted at a bus stop in Canada’s British Columbia province after an altercation with another teenager in an apparent case of hate crime. Canada-based news outlet CTV in a report said the incident took place earlier this week on Monday in Kelowna.

The CTV report said that during the altercation which happened at the intersection of Rutland Road South and Robson Road East the Sikh teenager was allegedly “kicked, punched and pepper-sprayed”.

“Officers determined a 17-year-old Sikh student was either beer or pepper sprayed by another teenage male after exiting a public transit bus on his way home,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement.

The police said that before the assault on the Sikh teenager, there was an ongoing altercation aboard the bus which led to those involved being kicked out the bus.

The World Sikh Organisation of Canada claimed that the student was assaulted while aboard the vehicle. The police are yet to release more details.

“Two individuals approached the student and first barred his entry onto the bus and then, once allowing him to board, began to threaten him with a lighter and photograph and record him from a close distance with their phones,” the World Sikh Organisation said in a statement.

Guntaas Kaur, WSO vice-president for British Columbia, condemned the incident and said that the attack on the Sikh teenager is “shocking and unacceptable”.

“Monday’s attack on a Sikh high school student in Kelowna is shocking and unacceptable,” Kaur was quoted as saying.

This is the second attack on a Sikh student in British Columbia this year.

In March, a 21-year-old Sikh student from India, Gagandeep Singh, was attacked in British Columbia. They ripped off his turban and dragged him across the sidewalk by his hair. Singh encountered a group of between 12 and 15 other young people on a bus who assaulted him.

(with PTI inputs)