London, Ont., man charged following incident investigated as hate crime

LONDON, Ont. — A man has been charged with forcible confinement and assault following what police describe as an incident involving “race-related comments.”

Police in London, Ont., say on July 17, a man was in a grocery store and tried to stop another man from leaving.

The exchange was captured on camera and the video was posted on social media, where it has since garnered two million views.

In it, a man appears to be physically blocking another man from leaving while speaking to someone on his cellphone and referring to that man as an “illegal alien.”

Police spokeswoman Sandasha Bough says the alleged victim didn’t want to press charges, but officers with the force’s hate crime unit decided to continue their investigation.

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She says 39-year-old Phillip McLaughlin of London has been charged with assault, forcible confinement and causing a disturbance.

Bough says if McLaughlin is convicted and the incident is determined to have been hate-related, it will affect his sentence.

The Canadian Press