Quebec, the province of where a hate crime can be masked as a crime of passion instead

And speaking of cultures historically sympathic to anti-Semitism CTV carries this report of the latest goings-on in La Belle Province:

The beating of a Quebec Hasidic boy has been caught by surveillance footage just outside the Skver Toldos Jewish School, the same institute firebombed last September.

Jewish groups said the attacker likely targeted the 16-year-old victim because he was Hasidic, but police have said there is no evidence to suggest the incident was a hate crime.

"It's just devastating to have events continually happening to the cultural communities in Quebec, and everybody pretending this is in the normal course of events," Jeffrey Boro, President of Quebec's Canadian Jewish Congress, told CTV Montreal.

The attack happened in broad daylight Thursday afternoon. Security footage shows a man in a white shirt approaching the victim and then punching him in the face.
Police have not called the incident a hate crime, partly because they say there were no threats made against the boy.

Witnesses of the attack called 911 and police arrested a 24-year-old suspect getting into a taxi. According to police, the suspect said he allegedly attacked the boy because he mistakenly thought he had flirted with his girlfriend.

I love the justification for the attack. A twenty-four year old man is threatened by the alleged flirtation behaviour of a 16 year old school boy. Of course, if the boy was dressed as a Chassidic Jew, it follows he probably practices the law of shomer negiah which makes the alleged excuse even more flimsy.

If you have to wonder why the Quebec police have trouble seeing this as a hate crime you have no understanding of the role anti-Semitism has played in Quebec culture. A few months ago the Quebec police had a bit of a hard time initially perceiving the firebombing of a Jewish community centre as a hate crime too.