Cyclist charged after allegedly attacking Indigenous woman for not wearing bra

A viral video taken in Ottawa captured the moment a woman appears to attack an Indigenous woman for apparently not wearing a bra, according to the victim’s account.

“Last night I was attacked by a white woman who was upset that I had no bra on. I used IG live to record her actions towards me,” Anishinaabe Twitter user Laura Gagnon wrote in a caption that shared the since-viral video. “I’ve never experienced a white mob chasing me and it’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. Be safe out there.”

This is confirmed by the police in Ottawa The independent that a 37-year-old woman has since been formally charged with assault and mischief after they received a report of an incident that took place on Wednesday around 6:40 p.m. in a park in Canada’s capital.

Officers who responded to the scene confirmed that a female had been assaulted. The suspect, who has not been identified, was released from custody after charges were filed against her under a promise to appear in court.

In the nearly two-minute viral video posted last week, viewers can see an enraged woman running full tilt at Ms. Gagnon while yelling indiscriminately at her.

The victim filming the attack can be heard asking the alleged attacker why she is targeting a Native woman and “intimidating” her for apparently not wearing a bra on unceded Algonquin territory, referring to land that First Nations people in Canada never ceded or legally signed over their lands to the government.

“I’m trying to document her. She assaulted me and I want her information because I want to make a police report,” the woman says off-screen after being shown to have been assaulted by the assailant.

In the background, another bystander can be heard screaming, “stop filming” before the mobile phone appears to be knocked out of the victim’s hands. More shouting from a growing crowd can be heard in the background.

“I’m trying to run away from her,” the victim can be heard shouting back to the crowd, completely off-screen.

The suspect is then seen on a bicycle approaching the woman again, before the footage on the screen is turned face down on what appears to be grass.

In the next moment, the woman has reached her car and is in the parking lot, trying to leave the park, but is unable to when she pans up and shows the same cyclist planted on the hood of her car, stopping her in leaving.

“Guys, I’m being attacked right now,” Ms. Gagnon can be heard saying to her camera behind the wheel of her car, before yelling back at someone in the crowd who appears to want her phone that it’s “my personal property .”

Gagnon has lived in the nation’s capital for the past 11 years and toldThe independent that until that night she had felt safe walking through her town, no matter where she was or what she was wearing.

“I know people have felt unease post-Covid, but we need to better understand that kindness and acceptance of other people’s bodies, clothes or any other piece of clothing should be a given, especially in 2022,” Gagnon said in an email mail. statement to The independent about the attack in the park.

“As a Native woman, I am extremely aware of colonial violence, the hypersexualization of our bodies, and the stereotypes we face every single day,” she added. “I want people to educate themselves about body autonomy and the sovereignty we have over our bodies.”

Ms. Gagnon says she “will continue to hold my head high to inspire and uplift others despite my haunting experience. I know my spirit and the support of other people’s good thoughts, prayers and love have taught me that negativity can be met with love. We need these experiences to pass on to future generations.”

The Ottawa Police Service said they are continuing to investigate the incident that erupted in the public space Wednesday night, describing it as a “verbal altercation that escalated into a physical altercation.”

The department has also reportedly forwarded the case to the Ottawa Police Service Hate and Bias Crime Unit, but has not yet filed any hate-related charges against the suspect, the department confirmed to Ottawa citizen.

Hate crimes in Canada have been on the rise in recent years, with the onset of the pandemic sparking an unprecedented increase in racially and ethnically motivated crimes, Statistics Canada reported.

Canadian police reported 2,669 hate-motivated crime incidents in 2020, the highest number recorded since the federal agency began collecting comparable data back in 2009.

During the first year of the pandemic, police-reported hate crimes increased by 37 percent compared to the previous year, and between 2019 and 2020, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by racial or ethnic hatred increased by 80 percent, from 884 to 1,594.