An eleven year old girl in Toronto last Friday pulled a terrific prank on Canada. She alleged what amounted to being physically assaulted twice in the presence of her younger brother as they walked to school.

The details of the alleged attack seemed rather strange; a man supposedly came from behind and armed with scissors, began cutting away at her hijab. According to news reports the man later returned after running off and resumed his cutting only to run away again, smiling as he did so.

Naturally this incident should have been treated seriously, and it was properly investigated by police. The investigation revealed that the alleged attack did not happen as announced today.
The mother of these children has a major task ahead on how best to discipline for such a costly prank.

However there ought to be more contrition coming from many other sources following official public reactions and statements made before the investigation was complete.

The investigation was begun as that of a “hate crime” which is considered by the criminal code to be more serious than simple assault.

What is improper are the responses from Prime Minister Trudeau, Ontario Premier Wynne and lesser luminaries such as Toronto’s mayor and school board officials.

All uniformly condemned the alleged incident before it was properly investigated. As usual these dignitaries presume to speak on behalf of all Canadians in their respective jurisdictions.

Ordinarily one would expect an apology from these loudmouths following the results of the investigation. They clearly jumped to conclusions that very quickly were found to be wrong.

All we got, again uniformly, were statements to the effect that “we’re glad this never happened”.

Their reactions were premature and stupid. They all should apologize.