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Toronto police have launched a hate-crime investigation after a Muslim woman was spat upon last week outside a plaza in the city’s northeast, just hours after counterterrorism investigators dismantled a local al-Qaeda-linked plot to derail a Via passenger train.

The suspect also said something to the 18-year-old victim, who was wearing a hijab, but she could not understand him due to a language barrier, police said.

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“Obviously there’s no motivation that we can determine other than the fact that the woman was wearing a hijab,” said Det.-Sgt. Jim Gotell of 33 Division, noting the victim had done “absolutely nothing” to provoke the assault, and there were no overt signs that the suspect suffered from a mental illness. “The only logical assumption we can make at this point in time is [it was] because she was wearing a hijab, and it was a hate crime.”

The incident occurred shortly before 9 p.m. on April 22 at the Peanut Plaza, a small, single-level retail strip in the area of Don Mills Road and Sheppard Avenue East.