Police make arrest in hate-motivated attack on TTC subway
Posted March 16, 2023 4:05 pm.
Toronto police say an arrest has been made in connection with a hate-motivated attack aboard a TTC subway last week.
Police say a woman was riding the subway southbound from Vaughan Metropolitan Station on March 9 when she was approached by a man at around 5 p.m.
The man became agitated during a conversation with the woman and produced a knife. The woman fled the train as it arrived at Wilson Station.
“Investigators believe the victim was targeted because of her Muslim faith,” police said in a statement on Wednesday.
On Thursday police made an arrest in the case. Philip J. Fenton, 47, is charged with weapons dangerous and assault with a weapon.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims said the suspect was asking the woman “hypothetical questions” about Muslims and Islam before he threatened her with a large knife which he pulled from his backpack.
“This is not the first time we have seen an Islamophobic attack on a Muslim woman who wears a hijab on public transit,” said NCCM COO Nadia Hasan. “There is a problem in this country where spaces that most Canadians take for granted simply aren’t safe for Muslim women and people of colour.”
