Manitoba urged to do more to prosecute hate-related crime after 4th building in a week targeted
CBC
WARNING: This story includes an image showing a swastika painted on a building.
An Islamic centre and mosque in the heart of Winnipeg's West End is the fourth building to be defaced hate-motivated graffiti in less than a week.
A swastika was found spray-painted on the Abu Bakr Al-Siddique mosque and community centre, at the corner of Ellice Avenue and Home Street, around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
By later in the morning, the graffiti had already been removed.
Adnan Siddiqui, the director of the mosque, said he has been in contact with police, who confirmed they removed the graffiti.
He's also grateful that someone took the time to report the incident.
"Canada is built on respect, diversity and freedom of worship, and we must protect those values together," Siddiqui said.
This incident comes after similar markings were sprayed on Kelvin High School on Monday night and Shaarey Zedek synagogue was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, including several swastikas, last Friday.
And on Sunday, a person was caught on surveillance footage smashing windows at Habibiz Café, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Portage Avenue. The person didn't enter the building but did leave a threatening message outside the restaurant, police previously said.
Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Claude Chancy said the major crimes unit is investigating the incident at the mosque, but it's too early to tell if it is linked to any of the others.
Avrom Charach, a member of the Jewish community who volunteers to remove antisemitic and other hateful graffiti, said he's disturbed, but no longer shocked, by such incidents.
"I'm always saddened … [but] I'm not even surprised anymore," he said Wednesday.
"This is happening far too much all over the city — it just doesn't get reported as often as it happens."
Kelvin and Shaarey Zedek are both located in the city's Crescentwood area, but Charach said he's scrubbed graffiti in 2025 from locations around the city.
The City of Toronto’s 2026 budget will prioritize affordability and will include a lower tax increase than the city has seen in recent years, Mayor Olivia Chow said ahead of the budget’s reveal Thursday morning.
Memorial University political scientist Kelly Blidook pulled no punches when asked what cost the Liberals the 2025 provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador.
It’s a mystery connected to Manitoulin Island and the north shore of Lake Huron that police thought they had solved five times, but each time they were thwarted.
In a break from recent tradition, Nova Scotia Power’s most senior officials are not participating in the public hearing that will determine whether many of their customers see rates jump this year and next.
When a historic bell was stolen from a Fredericton church after Christmas, a security camera from a neighbouring property caught a photo of a pickup truck.
While kids across Quebec return to school after the holidays, nine-year-old Ellie isn’t among them.
The superintendent of a Manitoba school division where a student was attacked with a sword last year said several steps had already been taken to improve safety before the province ordered all divisions to review their safety plans.
Two people who filed formal complaints with Moose Jaw police about the Dr. Goodenowe Restorative Health Center in Moose Jaw, Sask. are asking why the police force publicly said it had found no record of any such complaints.
The Charlottetown Farmers’ Market has secured its new, temporary location – and it will be open this Saturday.
Utility officials in southern Alberta’s mid-sized cities are planning system upgrades to avoid major water line breaks like one that have forced Calgary to implement water-use restrictions for the second time in two years.
A civil liberties advocate is raising concerns after a Surrey city councillor and mayoral candidate said she wants the city’s police to have increased access to the city's traffic cameras.
Following an inquest into the death of a Niagara man killed by police, a jury has recommended better support for family members, witnesses and officers involved in fatalities.
Some homeowners and Realtors are accusing a private equity firm that owns mobile home parks in Ontario of using questionable and illegal tactics to raise lot rents beyond what many can afford, making these once affordable homes nearly impossible to sell.