Parminder Singh Peter Bassi and Ravinder Robbie Bassi, two gay bashers facing charges for a vicious assault on a Vancouver gay couple after urinating on their house, have skipped out on their first scheduled court appearance.

Their lawyer, in the meantime, has asked for an extension until August 9 because he said he hasn’t received the files for the case. Now, I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve prepared a short file containing everything Mr. Baker needs to know about his clients:

File no. 28-3765-67

They were urinating on someone’s house and, when asked to stop, beat the living crap out of the owners while shouting anti-gay slurs. Then they didn’t show up for court.

Enjoy the extra month of preparation for that one.

• Case postponed for accused gay bashers [The Province]

Somewhat good news today, as four men have been arrested in Vancouver for two separate gay bashings in the past month.

Parminder Singh Peer Bassi and Ravinder Robbie Bassi, now arrested, were urinating on the home of a gay couple on June 12; when the couple asked them to stop, there were assaulted amidst a number of homophobic slurs.

Alexandre Tchernychev and Aaron Alexander Hahn, also now arrested, assaulted a man in Vancouver’s gay village on the morning of Canada Day, again while shouting homophobic slurs.

While I’m happy these attacks are being reported more frequently and arrests are being made, this is still happening far too often. It’s easy to condemn violence, but condemnation needs to start earlier, challenging the casual homophobia that leads to it. Condemnation from the gay community isn’t enough. Politicians, churches, ethnic communities, and everyone in between needs to help put a stop to this.

• Arrests made in 2 Vancouver gay bashings [CBC News]

There has been a noticeable jump in the number of reported hate crimes in Canada in 2008, and gay men top the charts as victims of hate-motivated violence, according to a police services report.

The rise in hate crimes is most likely due to better reporting of hate-motivated incidents, which is a very good thing, but these numbers are still way too high. The number of hate crimes logged by police, for example, has risen 35 percent since the year before to a grand total of 1,036. That’s over a thousand victims selected simply because of their race, religion, or sexual orientation with no other motivating factors.

Most disturbingly, 75 percent of all hate crimes involving physical violence (as opposed to vandalism and other non-violent incidents) were motivated solely by the sexual orientation of the victim. Of these, 85 percent of the victims were gay men. This means the gay community, and particularly gay men, are at a hugely disproportionate risk of violence.

This has got to change, and it starts by challenging all casual homophobia before it has a chance to escalate to this level of hate.

• Gay men targets of violence as hate crimes jump [Toronto Star]

A Vancouver man has been given a harsh, year-long prison sentence for assaulting a gay man back in September, 2008.

Jordan Smith was holding hands with his boyfriend as they walked along the street in Vancouver’s gay district when he was attacked by Michael Kandola. The attack knocked Smith out cold and broke his jaw, requiring surgery to have it wired shut.

Smith had never held hands with his boyfriend in public before and hasn’t done so since.

Kandola’s lawyers argued that the assault, caught on film by a security camera, should not be considered a hate crime—a notion that the judge rightfully dismissed. The attacker shouted anti-gay slurs before and after the assault, even as the victim was laying unconscious on the ground.

This is one of the first gay bashings to be ultimately ruled a hate crime under sections 318 and 319 of Canada’s criminal code—a very welcome change from the norm.

You see, occasionally, I hear some nonsense about how “all crimes are hate crimes,” and that tougher sentences shouldn’t be given in instances like Smith’s attack. I could not disagree as completely as I do with this sentiment. Hate crimes are different from regular crimes in that they target an entire community, not just a single victim. They send the message that all gay people had better watch their backs. This ruling sends the message that anyone who would terrorize the gay community with violence should watch theirs.

• B.C. judge declares attack on gay man a hate crime [CTV News]
• Attacked for holding hands [Surrey Leader]

The U.S. State of Oklahoma has accidentally passed a bill that eliminates all hate crime protections from people based on their race or religion instead of their sexual orientation, the bill’s original intent.

Bill 1965 (named, most likely, for the attitudes of that era) was supposed to essentially reverse the Matthew Sheppard and James Byrd Act, a federal law that added sexual orientation to the list of minorities protected from violent hate crimes. While states are not allowed to override federal law, Oklahoma found a strange workaround, mandating that local law officials simply not enforce a specific section of the U.S. Code under Title 18. Due to a clerical error or typo, however, the bill identified that section as 245 (which deals with race and religion) instead of 249 (which deals with sexual orientation).

Now, it’s actually a worthwhile exercise to substitute religion or race for sexual orientation to see how crazy anti-gay arguments sound, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen lawmakers do it themselves… to their own legislation… and actually pass it.

Or who knows, maybe they just wanted to exercise the golden rule and seek to be treated the way they treat others?

Either way, the intent of Bill 1965 is exactly the same, no matter which group of people it applies to. With that in mind, I’m sure the legislators who supported the bill in the first place will see no problem keeping it on the books as it stands, right?

• Lawmaker says hate crimes bill contains error [The Oklahoma Daily]
• Okla. Lawmakers Pass Wrong Hate Crimes Bill [The Advocate]

The United States has passed and signed into law The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The new law carries stiffer penalties for anyone who intends to terrorize the entire gay community by selecting and violently assaulting gay people at random.

Canada added sexual orientation to the list of minority groups protected from hate crimes in 2004—just five years ago.

Hear that, all my stateside friends? You’re not far behind! In fact, at this rate, you’ll have equal marriage rights nationally by 2011. Go, push for it!

Update: Slap reader David writes in with a correction. It turns out that Canada’s 2004 amendment dealt with protection from hate propaganda, and not violent crimes. The equivalent of the Matthew Shepard Act was actually added to Canada’s criminal code in 1995. So, it turns out that my stateside friends are pretty darn far behind after all. Keep pushing, though; you’re on your way!

• President Obama signs expanded hate crimes bill into law [Digital Journal]