“A Vancouver court has upgraded charges against a 20-year-old accused of attacking a gay man last month. The Crown has charged Michael Kandola, 20, with aggravated assault for the Sept. 27 incident. Kandola was initially charged with assault causing bodily harm in connection with the assault when a man was punched while walking hand-in-hand with a friend in downtown Vancouver.” Kandola’s lawyer has previously argued that the police trumped up an anti-gay angle. [CTV]
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marc
He has been let out to go home though…
Also, he has been barred from entering the “gay district”.
I’ve lived here all my life, born and raised”, but didn’t realize we had a gay district.
I know Davie Street is pretty gay with the banners and pink bus stops ( sigh ), but I didn’t realize we had actual boundaries that the city or police have kindly mapped out for us all.
Hmmmm…..
nikko
Outrage!! Justice has not been served ! What the fuck is wrong with Vancouver’s judges???!!! That stupid neanderthal of an immigrant needs his ugly ass kicked in- big time. Go back to your bullshit country, you fucking waste of flesh.
michael
I participated in the “Hold Hands for Justice March” held last Sunday. We had a really good turnout and marched through Davie Village, the heart of the “Gay District” in Vancouver. At the end there was a rally and speakers. First of all Nikko, stats show immigrants are no more likely to do something like this than born and bred residents, even white ones. There were a lot of speakers from the South Asian gay community. Lets not turn this into a racist issue, Jesus, I moved from Tennessee to Vancouver to get away from that sort of shit. Also, the police spoke and Marc, saying there is a “Gay district” is no different than saying an “Italian neighborhood” or “Greek Neighborhood”,
Jesus, again lets not make this into something its not. This guy is an alleged gay basher and what this is about is doing whatever we can to see this does not happen anywhere in Vancouver. The rally, including those from the South Asian community were calling for the accused to receive the highest penalties if found guilty. The police are calling this a hate crime and hope the judge will see it that way as well. The guy who was bashed had a statement read and before this he was one foot in the closet one foot out, now he is completely out and he is showing great courage in seeing this through. Part of this rally was to show him that we support and are grateful for his courage. People are not taking this with a grain of salt and thats what I love about Vancouver. It is socially progressive and pro-active. It is light years ahead of the states when it comes to human rights issues.
nikko
MICHAEL great to hear that! Vancouver is socially progressive and I admire that.