Hate crime tears at community fabric, says police chief
A hate crime in Port Colborne targeting a teenaged interracial couple is an act that “tears at the fabric of the entire community,” says Niagara Regional Police Chief Jeff McGuire.
“The primary victims are these two young people, but from there the ripples are felt across the community,” McGuire said. “It is more than just a crime. It is a break and enter, of course, but it is also vicious racism. It is felt by the community, it impacts the school community.”
On the morning of Feb. 15, vandals broke into the home of Tim Benner in rural east Port Colborne. They destroyed much of his home, including ruining all the floors and most of the furniture. They also stole alcohol, jars of honey and some digital cameras.
They also sprayed several walls in the home in black paint, including the words “N--ga Lover” on the walls of the bedroom of Benner’s 16-year-old daughter, Ruby Benner.
Ruby, a white student at Lakeshore Catholic High School in Port Colborne, is dating classmate Jayden Hannigan, who is black.
Niagara Regional Police say they are treating the incident as a hate crime.
To date, no arrests have been made.
While police detectives from the NRP street crime unit in Welland continue their investigation, Lakeshore principal Glenn Gifford says the school is rallying behind Ruby and Jayden.
“We’re providing whatever supports we can, which includes counselling,” Gifford said. “As a school administrator my primary focus here is to support our students.”
Gifford said the school is fully cooperating with the police investigation and there are plans for a school assembly that may involve anti-racism experts, but the details are still being worked out.
John Crocco, director of education for Niagara Catholic District School board, said he and Lakeshore Catholic staff have reached out to Ruby, Jayden and their families.
“My message to them is that they are not walking alone,” said Crocoo, who called the attack on the Benner home “an act of cowardice that has no place in our school community or in society.”
“We talk a great deal about our school community as a family,” Crocco said. “And that is what it is. A family. And that means you stand with each other and look out for each other.”
Crocco, who used to be the principal at Lakeshore, said racism is antithetical to everything the school stands for.
“When you go Lakeshore, there is a place in the school called the Great Hall. And there you will find a Canadian flag and the flag of every nation where students in the school come from or were born in,” he said. “So you see flags from Iran, from Somalia, from the United States and hundreds of other countries. It is truly a United Nations of flags because we are a very diverse family.”
On Tuesday, Ruby and Jayden told the incident has left them feeling uneasy at school, wondering if some of their classmates are responsible for the break-in.
Crocco said he understands why the students feel that way given the circumstances.
“But that is why we are working hard to stand behind our students and support them,” he said. “The police are doing their investigation, and if they do charge someone that will bring some sense of closure, which is important. But these students also have to know their school is a safe place.”
McGuire said this particular incident is different than most hate crimes the NRP investigates.
There were 23 incidents in 2015 and 2016 that the NRP designated as hate crimes, but no arrests were made.
The chief said of the 10 hate crime incidents in 2016, eight were incidents of criminal mischief.
“These are crimes of vandalism, something like graffiti painted on the side of a building, a swastika or something like that,” he said.
These incidents, which also include vandalism of grave sites, tend to broadly target ethnic or religious groups or institutions like churches or temples. They are reported as vandalism and there is often little evidence to connect the incidents to suspects.
Although the Port Colborne incident also targets a visible minority, it also appears to be aimed at specific individuals, he said.
McGuire said if police are able to make an arrest, officers do not lay a “hate crime” charge.
“That is not how it works. So let’s say a charge is laid in the Port Colborne case, that would involve charges of break and enter and mischief and those kinds of charges,” he said. “What happens is after a conviction, the Crown attorney can then use hate crime provisions during sentencing, which comes with a more severe penalty.”
The chief said the NRP did not issue a press release when the incident happened on Feb. 15, because there was no evidence the public was at ongoing risk, and there may have been investigative reasons why the officers probing the case did not want to make the vandalism public.
The incident became public when the family spoke to news reporters.
McGuire said the NRP is taking the matter seriously.
“As I said, this is more than just a crime. This is an incident of racism that impacts not just the victims, but effects our entire community,” he said.