Hamilton woman in racist Boxing Day parking lot rant to appear in court in March (Niagara Falls Review)

(https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/crime/2020/02/03/hamilton-woman-in-racist-boxing-day-parking-lot-rant-to-appear-in-court-in-march.html)

Hamilton woman in racist Boxing Day parking lot rant to appear in court in March

By Alison LangleyReview Reporter
The Niagara Falls Review

Mon., Feb. 3, 2020timer2 min. read

updateArticle was updated Jun. 02, 2020

A Hamilton woman facing several criminal charges following a racist rant in a Niagara-on-the-Lake mall parking lot on Boxing Day that was caught on video is scheduled to answer to the charges in March.

Patricia Zammit, 51, did not appear in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Monday for her first scheduled court date since her arrest.

Lawyer Alex Rygus spoke on the woman's behalf and requested the matter be adjourned until March so that her Hamilton defence counsel can review disclosure released by the Crown's office.

The lawyer was also instructed to obtain a video pertaining to the incident from the Crown prior to the woman's next court date.

Zammit was arrested Dec. 30 and charged with assault and uttering threats after a widely-shared video of an altercation between two women over a parking spot at a crowded parking lot appeared on social media.

The incident happened Boxing Day at the Outlet Collection at Niagara mall on Taylor Road.

An Asian woman shot the one-minute cellphone video and posted it to social media. The video went viral and garnered more than 70,000 views in less than five days, and sparked community outrage.

The video begins with a woman berating the complainant and calling her a "f---ing Chink."

The video, which has since been deleted, also appears to show the recording device being swatted at and the complainant mocked for speaking Mandarin.

The woman, sings "la-la-la-la" at the complainant and gives the camera the middle finger and sticks out her tongue.

"She started it, she goes, 'I don't know what a signal is.' You don't know what a signal is, guess what? Even in China they have signal lights," the woman says in the video.

The woman who recorded the expletive-filled tirade reported the incident to guest services. Mall security staff then contacted Niagara Regional Police and a suspect was arrested a few days later.

In January, the co-founder of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association said the altercation illustrates the need for locally-developed protocols to enforce and track incidents of hate speech.

The association recently started looking into "making hate speech something that can be enforced with municipal bylaws."

- Hamilton woman arrested after racist rant in Niagara mall parking lot caught on video

- Video: Police investigating racist rant in Niagara mall parking spot dispute

- Enforcement, tracking of hate crime is 'not adequate,' says anti-racism association

Interview on Behalf of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association on the Need to Track Hate Crimes

 Interview with Matt Holmes of CKTB 610AM on the need to track hate crimes. I was speaking on behalf of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association

 https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/37d93c2c-c177-4d1a-9df8-ab3800ee91d4/audio.mp3

Interview with St. Catharines Standard on need to Better Track Hate Crimes

 Interview on behalf of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association with the St. Catharines Standard on the need to better track hate crime data https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/niagara-region/2020/01/03/enforcement-tracking-of-hate-crime-is-not-adequate-says-anti-racism-association.html

Interview on behalf of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association on Don Cherry's firing

Interview with Matt Holmes of CKTB 610 on Don Cherry's firing, I was speaking on behalf of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association  https://20313.mc.tritondigital.com/OMNY_NEWSTALK610_P/media-session/25f71bf9-5c3f-470b-8e83-87389a54e0aa/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/15e8087d-52fc-4910-92fd-ab020185ca5f/audio/direct/t1573515839/Don_Cherry_fired_from_Hockey_Night_in_Canada_-_Niagara_Anti_Racism_Coalition_Rea.mp3?t=1573515839

Speech to St. Catharines City Council Against Reconsideration of Millions in Tax Incentives for Condos for Millionaires

 Speech to St. Catharines City Council Against Reconsideration of Millions in Tax Incentives for Condos for Millionaires

I am Saleh Waziruddin and I am speaking against reconsidering the application for tax incentives.

There is a lot of misinformation by advocates of business who we've seen today are in a full court press to make you break down and repent because your initial decision wasn't according to the wishes of business. The tax incentive is not a prize for filling out the paperwork correctly or meeting the minimum criteria, the application is just a qualifier. If your role is to approve everyone who applies then there is no difference between you and a rubber stamp, which is what business interests want everyone to assume is your role. But we, the residents of St. Catharines, elected you to represent the interests of everyone in making every decision count and pushing your policies forward in our interest in every case.

We are being distracted with the circumstantial similarity in street addresses between this application and the condos next door, forgetting that there is a nearly 25% point difference in the evaluation scores of the applications, not to mention a 400% difference in incentive value. This is not comparing apples to apples.

You are a lucky council because you have a psychic among you. One of you predicted the exact situation you are in at your March 18 council meeting. This councillor asked if a developer fills out the paperwork correctly but is denied and says “well you gave it to the other guy,” would you be obligated to give the incentive? The answer from staff and legal was clear: it is council's decision, “council has no obligation.” The guidelines are only to get your foot in the door. So every developer knew back in March that they could be denied even if they met the qualifying criteria. No one should be acting surprised today.

Instead of threatening that developers will pull money out and housing will suffer, developers should learn a lesson here to stop treating council as a rubber stamp and to pay attention to your proper role and policy priorities, not dismiss them as unreasonable, arbitrary, “against your own rules,” and just “politics”.

If incentives are supposed to help create more affordable housing, which is not in the CIP (Community Improvement Plan - tax incentives) but what some business representatives are suggesting, then the answer is to use the tax money to build public and social housing, not to give it back to profit margins for developers of million dollar condos (not all the condos may be a million dollars but many are).

To paraphrase a Canadian politician from my childhood: you have an option, council. You can say, 'I am not going to do it. This is wrong for St. Catharines, and I am not going to ask residents to pay the price.' You have an option, council — to say 'no' — to the old attitudes. Saying you have no option is not good enough for St. Catharines. It is a confession of non-leadership. And this city needs your leadership. You have an option, council. You can do better than to reconsider.

Question from Councillor Miller: We've heard from the business community, we've been threatened with having a bad reputation among them if we don't reconsider this. As an average citizen what do you think the impact would be on the community if we do reconsider and we give in to these suggestions?

Answer: If you reconsider you will have a terrible reputation from the residents and beyond because it will look like you've just been beaten and you're just a rubber stamp and you're not looking out for the interests of the residents. That when a situation has come up for your vote, that we can't count on you to think of us and that you'll only be thinking of “well, did they fill the paperwork out right” and “what does the business community want.”

Interview with People's Voice radio (podcast) on Justin Trudeau Blackface Scandal

Interview with People's Voice radio (podcast of the newspaper) on Justin Trudeau's blackface scandal and the election https://soundcloud.com/user-158490137-25338398/blackface-and-beyond-interview-with-anti-racism-activist-saleh-waziruddin

Interviews on Justin Trudeau's blackface scandal with CKTB 610AM on behalf of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association

Interviews on 610AM CKTB Talk Radio on Justin Trudeau's blackface scandal, representing the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association, with Matt Holmes:

https://19733.mc.tritondigital.com/OMNY_NEWSTALK610_THEONEOCLOCKTALKWITHMATTHOLMES_P/media-session/a70cf1d3-e190-4928-aab5-d1fb33c311b1/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/ef47a922-9d34-49e5-9dbf-aacd014e4b4c/audio/direct/t1568924672/Justin_Trudeau_addressing_photos_that_show_him_in_brownface.mp3?t=1568924672&utm_source=Podcast

and Larry Fedoruk:

https://19733.mc.tritondigital.com/OMNY_NEWSTALK610_THELARRYFEDORUKSHOW_P/media-session/ce00700c-c35f-430d-8ee6-46de5636e46f/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/de2e4487-9834-476d-890f-aacd01634e47/audio/direct/t1568929328/Justin_Trudeau_Addresses_Third_Instance_Of_Blackface.mp3?t=1568929328&utm_source=Podcast