Is this political correctness run mad? Or cultural insensitivity? Or just stupidity?
The Canadian Jewish Congress says the Toronto Police Service is pushing anti-hate law “to its most absurd level” by listing “non-Jewish Shiksa” as a victim category in its latest hate crime study.
The statistical report reveals that officers investigated hate crimes in Toronto last year against such unusual victim groups as teachers, feminists, infidels, police, Nazis and pedophiles.
But it is the redundantly named category of “non-Jewish Shiksa” — a slur for a non-Jewish woman, from a Hebrew root meaning “a detested thing” — that has especially baffled the CJC, a prominent advocate for stronger hate crime laws.
“You just can’t apply it to literally everything,” said CEO Bernie Farber.
The report, not yet released on the TPS website, shows an increase in “hate/bias occurrences” over the year before, from 153 to 174, with 23 charges laid.
Jewish, black, and LGBT were the top victim categories, but Tamils also registered, with six occurrences. By far the most common crime was mischief, usually graffiti, followed by assault and threatening.
The 2009 shiksa incident, classified as “mischief,” happened in 53 Division, a central uptown area colloquially known among police as “Sleepy Hollow” because it includes the city’s most pleasant residential communities, including some of the Jewish neighbourhoods around Bathurst and Lawrence.
It is not known whether a charge was laid, or a prosecution successful.