A man caught on camera shoving an elderly Asian man in Vancouver two years ago will not serve time behind bars for the assault, a judge said Monday.
Jamie Bezanson was given a conditional discharge and will be on probation for one year, the BC Prosecution Service told CTV News.
The 52-year-old pleaded guilty to assault after being identified and charged in July 2020.
He was identified following the release of surveillance camera video from a convenience store in East Vancouver.
The video, released by police, showed a senior later identified as being in his 90s and diagnosed with dementia entering a convenience store on March 13, 2020.
Police said staff at the store near 1st Avenue and Nanaimo Street were trying to assist the then-92-year-old when a man started shouting anti-Asian remarks. Some of those remarks were alleged to have been about COVID-19.
Police said the altercation continued outside, where the victim was shoved. The elderly man fell to the ground and hit his head.
Bezanson turned himself into police after the release of the video, according to a person who identified himself to CTV News as the man’s son.
Multiple sources confirmed that Bezanson was the man in the video, though police didn’t confirm his identity until a charge was announced months later.
Fortunately the victim was recovering well in the weeks after the attack, his family members said.
“Xenophobia is on the rise and we hope that as a community we can stand together to help protect the next person this may happen to. We can’t control the fact that bad things are going to happen, but it’s how we react to them that really matters,” the man’s grandson said in a statement to CTV News after the attack.
Initially described as a hate-related incident, the BCPS said in an email Monday that there was no reliable evidence that the attack was motivated by hate. Instead, the evidence suggested it wasn’t, a spokesperson said in an email.
At the time, however, the senior’s assault was considered to be one of at least 11 alleged hate crimes reported in the city that March, many of which had an anti-Asian sentiment.
Data collected through the rest of the year suggested Vancouver saw more reported anti-Asian hate crimes than any other city in North America in 2020.
According to Vancouver police, these types of crimes were up 717 per cent in 2020, compared to the previous year.
Asked how many hate charges were approved in 2020, the BC Prosecution Service said in terms of hate crimes as defined in the Criminal Code, there was just one.
Still, the BCPS said these allegations may have led to other charges, such as assault, uttering threats and mischief. These charges are not tracked based on alleged aggravated factors.