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Jewish groups laud hate-crimes charge in cross burning

Canadian Jewish groups have been among the first to applaud the laying of hate-crime charges against two men accused of using racial epithets, and burning a cross at the home of an interracial couple in the country's Nova Scotia province, reports Ecumenical News International.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced on 24 February that it had charged two men with public incitement of hatred, mischief and uttering threats. The charges were laid after an incident in the early hours of 21 February, when Shayne Howe, who is black, found a two-metre-high cross burning in front of his home in Poplar Grove, Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.

Howe heard a man yell, "Die, nigger, die," before he ran off. Howe is black; his wife, Michelle Lyon, is white. She is a distant relative of the two accused men, Nathan Neil Rehberg, aged 20, and his brother Justin Chad Rehberg, who is 19.

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TAGS: Canada Canadian Jewish groups hate-crime charges Canadian cross burning Shayne Howe Michelle Lyon Nathan Neil Rehberg Justin Chad Rehberg

[03/03/2010]

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