A flag displayed at a Kanata home and which was vandalized in June — leading to an Ottawa police hate-crime investigation and several charges against a local man — was a pride banner, Capital Current has learned.
In a June 30 press release, the Ottawa Police Service announced five counts of “hate/bias-motivated mischief and harassment” charges against a 41-year-old male resident of Kanata who allegedly defaced a neighbour’s flag on several occasions between June 10 and 17 using a paintball gun.
“The man repeatedly targeted a symbolic flag displayed on a neighbour’s property by firing paintballs at it,” police stated at the time, without identifying the targeted flag and the cause it symbolized.
“A hate crime is a criminal offence committed against a person or property motivated by hate/bias or prejudice based on race, national or ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, or other similar factors,” said the police statement about the flag attacks. “The OPS treats incidents of this nature seriously and recognizes their profound impact on the community.”
“It’s unfortunate that OPS made a decision to not be direct and honest with the public. In their statement, they lay out the definition of a hate crime, so it is curious as to why they didn’t name it as a homophobic hate crime.”
— Carling Miller, executive director, Kind Space
The alleged hate crime was widely reported by local news media, but the group targeted in the paintball attacks was not identified by any of the outlets.
The flag referred to in the OPS media release was confirmed to be a 2SLGBTQIA+ pride flag after Capital Current sent an inquiry about the incident to the office of Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry.
“It occurred on McGibbon (Drive) in Kanata South, and the flag referred to in the media release was a gay pride flag,” Curry’s office stated in response.
The unidentified man was charged with two counts of harassment by threatening conduct towards another person, and three counts of mischief/damage to property not exceeding $5,000 following the investigation by the OPS Hate and Bias-Motivated Crime Unit.
The man has since been released on several conditions.
The incident has raised significant concern for Ottawa’s 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
“I am deeply irritated that a grown man would act in such a dangerous and childish manner,” Carling Miller, executive director of Kind Space, told Capital Current. “He destroyed someone’s property because why? He didn’t like the arrangement of colours on a flag?”
Ottawa’s Kind Space community centre provides a safe space and support for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Ottawa by offering resources, events, social and educational programming.
Miller said it’s also upsetting that the OPS did not mention in its press release about the incident that the flag defaced was a pride flag.
“It’s unfortunate that OPS made a decision to not be direct and honest with the public,” said Miller. “In their statement, they lay out the definition of a hate crime, so it is curious as to why they didn’t name it as a homophobic hate crime.”
Miller said that it’s important that the OPS clearly state the type of harassment and violence that occurs when informing the public that an alleged hate crime has occurred.
“Using vague or flowery language is a tactic used to downplay the seriousness of the harassment or violence that occurred,” said Miller.
In January, the Ottawa Police Service Hate and Bias Crime Unit released annual statistics for 2024 that showed a slight decrease of four per cent in the total number of reported hate-motivated incidents compared with 2023.
The OPS statistics showed there were 467 reported hate-related incidents in 2024 compared with 487 the year before. The incidents in 2024 led to 190 counts of criminal offences against 54 individuals.
The groups most often victimized in the 2024 incidents were, in order of frequency:
• Jewish (113 reported incidents)
• 2SLGBTQIA+ (54)
• Black (54)
• Muslim (18)
• Chinese (18)
The most serious violations included assault causing bodily harm, harassing communication, mischief to property and threats.
In January 2024, a pride flag flying outside the Goulburn Township Museum in Stittsville was pulled down and stolen by two suspects after they had attempted to set it on fire. The hate crime was caught on surveillance video.
“The incident occurred at approximately 1:10 am on January 19th when two individuals used their vehicle to pull down a flagpole,” police stated at the time in a press release, which notably did identify the flag and group targeted. “They then removed the Pride flag from the flagpole and set it on fire. They are observed to have been taking pictures or filming the incident with a cell phone.”
Such anti-2SLGBTQIA+ incidents occur with some regularity in cities across Canada.
A person damaged a pride flag outside the entrance of a Lower Mainland church in B.C. last month.
An act of vandalism at a pride crosswalk in Tisdale, Sask. occurred in June. In that case, the rainbow crosswalk was spray-painted with a swastika.
As the concern for the rights and well-being of many 2SLGBTQIA+ citizens continues, Miller argues that government officials need to be transparent when anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate crimes occur, to help ensure the safety of queer people.
“The fact that our societies are pulling to the right, and in some cases pulling to the extreme right, is a direct line from the economic and financial hardship people are experiencing and the propaganda and scapegoating that is offered up as the cause of our collective hardship,” said Miller. “It is disturbing to watch government officials continually double down on this narrative.”
The OPS has previously stated that decisions on details publicly released about criminal charges, including the names of individuals charged with hate crimes, are determined on a case-by-case basis.
In July, one of Ottawa’s best-known defence lawyers, Lawrence Greenspon, complained about the inconsistent practices of the Ottawa Police Service in publicly naming individuals charged with crimes. He cited the OPS press release announcing charges against the unnamed Kanata man in the paintball-flag incident and a second OPS statement issued June 27 that detailed the charges against an unnamed man alleged to have defaced the National Holocaust Memorial.
The individual charged with defacing the Holocaust monument was later identified publicly as former City of Ottawa lawyer Iain Aspenlieder.
“My primary position is that no names of anybody should be published or broadcast prior to a finding of guilt, because when that happens, the presumption of innocence goes out the window,” Greenspon told the Ottawa Citizen in a story published on July 13.
“But given that that I’ve been unsuccessful at least twice in trying to convince the courts of that conflict between the presumption of innocence and the freedom of the press, it surprises me and disappoints me to think, to look, to find out that the Ottawa police have taken it upon themselves to decide which names are going to be published and which names are not going to be.”