FREELANCE writer David Menzies is a puzzled man.

On Sunday, out with his son aged nine in Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, he used his new camera to photograph what he described in this piece as “this neon shrine”.

Suddenly, a woman wearing a hijab ran toward me. She was part of a group that included two women wearing full face-covering burkas. She was screaming: We are Muslim! You do not take pictures of us!



Menzies retorted that he was in a public square in a democracy, and that he could actually take pictures of whomever he pleased.

The woman then punched him in the face, and almost knocked his camera from his hands.

My son and I were then surrounded by a mob of about 20 people, many of whom were speaking Arabic. One kept demanding I surrender my camera to him.

The punch was a clear case of assault, but what puzzles Menzies is that the police simply didn’t see it that way.

After reporting the attack to the police, one officer interrogated the woman. Menzies said:

She was still hysterical. Good. The constable would encounter firsthand what I had been forced to deal with earlier.

But:

The cop walked back to me. No charges would be laid, he said, because he believed the woman’s story â€” namely, she was merely trying to knock the camera out of my hands.

Got that? Apparently, attempted property damage is OK. If a face gets in the way of a would-be vandalizing fist… hey, accidents happen.

The fact we have Islamists living amongst us who despise western values isn’t news. But surely you can’t just sock someone in the mouth.

Well, apparently you can â€” as long as the intent of the aggressor was merely to inflict property damage.

Hat tip: Canada Dave