Canada PM condemns violent attack on women wearing hijab

Justin Trudeau on Friday denounced an alleged assault of women wearing hijabs in a Canadian city where a white supremacist was convicted of terrorism for murdering a Muslim family.

In a post on X, the Canadian prime minister said he was "angry to learn that women wearing hijabs were the target of a violent attack" in London, Ontario.

He also condemned a separate incident involving a series of hateful, harassing phone calls made to a mosque in another part of the country amid a rise in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim threats.

According to the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the two women in the streets of London this week were punched in the face by a man brandishing a knife who yelled anti-Palestinian slurs.

London police said a 79-year-old man has been arrested and charged with assault and mischief -- adding that these offenses, as well as threats against the women and a passerby, were being investigated as "a hate-motivated incident."

In June 2021 the city, southwest of Toronto, was the scene of horrifying killings of three generations of a Muslim family that also left a young boy orphaned.

The Afzaal family was out for an evening stroll when a 23-year-old man in a pickup truck mowed them down.

He was sentenced in February to life in prison, in the first ruling in Canada to make a link between white supremacy and terrorism in a murder case.