Calgary police charged 36-year-old resident Christopher Duchaine with hate-motivated crimes against Russians. .“We would like to make it clear hate-motivated crimes of any kind will not be tolerated in our city,” said Calgary police Const. Matt Messenger in a Thursday press release. .“Uttering threats and harassing individuals based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, mental or physical ability, sex, age, or any other similar factor, are considered criminal offences.”.It's alleged a man called the All Saints Russian Orthodox Church, 905 8 Ave. NE, on Tuesday and made threats toward employees and the church congregation. Since it's believed All Saints was targeted because of its Russian heritage, the release said the incident was deemed a hate crime. .The release said there were four additional reports of threats and harassment against Russian-Calgarians the same day. It said Calgary police’s hate crime and extremism unit investigated all incidents and found them to be related. .Duchaine was charged with five counts of criminal harassment. All five of the reported incidents have been deemed hate crimes. .“We take these incidents seriously and recognize hate-motivated crimes have negative impacts on victims and in these cases left victims feeling unsafe,” said Messenger. .Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to contact police at 403-266-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 222-8477. .Prejudice reared its ugly head in March after Calgary police said it is investigating complaints by social media users of hate speech against Russian-Calgarians..READ MORE: Calgary police investigating multiple reports of anti-Russia hate speech on social media.“In the past 48 hours, we received multiple reports from citizens about what's believed to be hate speech and harassment targeting Russian-Calgarians on a social media platform,” said Calgary police..“Our patrol officers and hate crimes and extremism team are currently investigating these incidents and monitoring them closely.”
