Beating of Muslim woman on city bus called result of Sept. 11 racist backlash By COLIN PERKEL http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020130/6/i1u9.html TORONTO (CP) - The ugly bruises under her eyes still bear witness to what Fatema Hussain says was an unprovoked beating on a city bus, one she says provoked laughter among other passengers. The 50-year-old mother of eight children, five still at home, is a victim, her supporters say, of a post-Sept. 11 backlash against Muslims in Canada, and something has to be done. "I couldn't sleep from the pain," Hussain, wearing a traditional head scarf, told a news conference Tuesday through an interpreter. "I'm still in pain and I'm not feeling at peace." Hussain, who fled violence and oppression in Iraq two years ago, said she was heading home from a shopping expedition just after four o'clock one afternoon last week when the bus driver rejected her transfer, ripped it up and told her to pay again. When she refused, she says the driver and passengers began yelling at her to get off the bus, while others laughed. Hussain says a passenger then grabbed her shopping bags, threw them off the bus and pushed her roughly out the door as she got off to retrieve them. When she turned around, she says the man punched her in the head, knocking her briefly unconscious. Hussain says a passerby finally helped her back onto the bus and the driver called police. "The police told me they could do nothing about it because the guy who had punched me had fled the scene," Hussain said. But Toronto police spokesman Sgt. Jim Muscat said Tuesday that police consider the incident "serious" and are investigating it. The Toronto Transit Commission said the driver followed normal procedures. The commission was unaware of any complaint against the driver, spokeswoman Marilyn Bolton said. She added that the commission had been told Hussain's son was satisfied with the explanations he was given about why the transfer was rejected. New Democrat Peter Kormos called the incident "disturbing" and described as an outrage what he believes has been its insufficient investigation. "How can we as a community leave this woman punched, beaten and bruised and not do anything meaningful about it?" said Kormos. "This is not an isolated incident. Canadians are being attacked and these attacks have been nurtured by the climate of hatred that has flowed from Sept. 11." In fact, Toronto police say there was a "significant increase" in hate-related complaints in the city after the terror attacks in the U.S., but that the number is now what it was before Sept. 11. "That number dropped steadily in the next couple of months and it's come back to a normal amount," said Det.-Const. Samuel Samm of the Toronto police hate-crimes section. Nevertheless, Kormos wants the Ontario government to resurrect the province's anti-racism secretariat. He is also asking retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, appointed last fall as Ontario's security adviser, to investigate. |