In this still taken from a video posted to the Toronto Sun’s YouTube page, a man in a grey shirt forcefully grabs the hat off photographer Stan Behal’s head at an anti-hate rally in Toronto on Saturday. (Toronto Sun/YouTube)
The altercation happened on camera, in front of police, with dozens of onlookers
A member of the news media was assaulted by a protester in Toronto this past weekend.
The altercation happened on camera, in front of police, with dozens of people standing by. The incident in which a journalist was struck by an activist — ironically, at an anti-hate rally — seemed entirely unprovoked: a pathetic attack on someone who was just there to do his job.
Every Canadian who respects the role of the news media (and knows that grown-ups aren’t supposed to hit each other) ought to be outraged. Though, at a guess, at least a few readers are only learning about this incident now.
The encounter happened Saturday, when a number of anti-fascism groups assembled to counter a planned protest by the Calgary-based Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (WCAI) organization at Nathan Phillips Square, outside Toronto City Hall. The WCAI protest was actually cancelled ahead of time, but the counter-protest was held anyway, and it was there that a Toronto Sun photographer was attacked by a still-unidentified protester.
