Police in Vancouver are nowadays investigating whether a Canadian Turkish man was punched in the jaw in an attack that seems to be a hate crime.
The biggest newspaper in British Columbia, Vancouver Sun, quoting police spokesman Const. Brian Montague, reported that a 54-year-old Vancouver man is charged with assault after a conflict errupted at the Starbucks on Denman and Davie streets at 4:15 p.m. Thursday.
“The alleged assault apparently occurred as a result of an argument believed to have been started by some inappropriate and racial comments that were made, and the file will be reviewed by our hate-crimes investigator," Montague was quoted as saying by Vancouver Sun. The daily did not release the suspect's name.
According to the Huffington Post Canada, Dino Demir, 37, of Surrey, was on the coffee shop's patio so he could use Starbucks' Wi-Fi to speak with a friend in the U.K before the incident.
In the downtown cafe, he decided to move back to the patio, so his phone call would not disturb the two other customers near him. Demir noticed the two customers, both men, were gesturing towards him. The men, one of whom was drinking beer, seemed to be upset.
Shortly after, Demir was assaulted by a West End man who punched him in the face by yelling racist comments. “I felt targetted because I was speaking Turkish," Demir said, speaking to Canadian TV. “You're talking a foreign language and you came into this country, go back to your f***ing country. This is what they told me," he explained.
