Police say Hijab-cutting didn’t occur

TORONTO — An 11-year-old girl’s claim that a scissors-wielding man approached her on the way to school and cut her hijab is not true, Toronto police said Monday as they closed their investigation.

The alleged incident, reported Friday, made international headlines and drew swift public condemnation from the prime minister, Ontario’s premier and Toronto’s mayor.

Police said their investigation concluded with no charges laid and no consequences for the girl.

“These allegations were extremely serious and not surprisingly, they received national and international attention,” police spokesman Mark Pugash said in an interview. “We investigated, we put together a significant amount of evidence and we came to the conclusion that what was described did not happen.”

Pugash said police don’t know how the story escalated. He stressed it’s “very unusual” for someone to make such false allegations and said he hopes it will not discourage others from coming forward.

Canadian Muslim organizations expressed similar concerns, saying they feared others who experience hate crimes may be reluctant to report them out of worry they will not be believed.

The executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, Ihsaan Gardee, said while the group is relieved the girl wasn’t attacked, a false report is “unsettling.” Such reports “not only affect the person making them, but may also affect persons who are in fact targeted by Islamophobic and hateful acts,” Gardee said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who denounced the alleged incident Friday, said Monday he would not comment on the findings of the investigation. But he said there is a pattern of hate crimes against religious minorities, particularly women, that needs to be addressed.