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Protesters call for apology from Trudeau after false hijab-cutting incident

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday in downtown Vancouver with signs asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to apologize for how he dealt with what’s being called the “hijab hoax” incident.

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday in downtown Vancouver with signs asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to apologize for how he dealt with what’s being called the “hijab hoax” incident.

Protesters were holding signs such as “Trudeau do not split Canadians”, “Trudeau apologize”, “all Canadians are equal” and “we will vote” in front of Vancouver Art Gallery.

The so-called “hijab hoax” happened last month, when an 11-year-old girl accused somebody of trying to cut her hijab. At the time, reports said Toronto police were seeking an Asian suspect in his 20s.

Trudeau spoke out on Twitter, saying “incidents like this cannot be tolerated.” However, Toronto Police later reported “the incident did not happen”

Related Article: “Someone assaulted me by cutting my hijab two times” did not happen

Many of the protesters are Asian Canadians and said Trudeau failed to stand up for Asians in his response to the incident that it never happened.

 “This is fake news, but I don’t understand how it got reported by multiple media outlets within 45 minutes after it happened,” one protester identified herself as Lee told Dushi Bao.

 “We want Justin Trudeau to apologize, as he made a biased speech before police investigation in regards to this incident.”

Another protester Yang Wang said the incident happened at the block where mainly Asians reside, “that’s why Asian people feel hurt the most and we don’t want to have fake hate in between different minorities.”

 “We also had another protests Jan. 20 in Vancouver and Toronto, but it is frustrating that most mainstream media did not report on this, which is unacceptable for us,” said Tanya Gaw, another protester.

—With files from Dushi Bao.


People also flooded Trudeau’s twitter with 3500 comments, among them many asked him to apologize.