Occult shop owner calls third broken window a hate crime

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This article was published 02/03/2017 (3360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The owner of a West End store that specializes in the occult says police should treat vandalism to her property as a hate crime.

Elemental Book and Curiosity Shop on Langside Street had its third window broken in six years on Sunday night or Monday morning.

“I know my business is targeted in ways other businesses are not. These things don’t happen to my neighbours,” said store owner Dominique Smith, who regards herself as a witch and gives lectures on witchcraft and paganism.

“At some point someone needs to make a correlation that I’m being targeted for reasons other than just pure vandalism.”

The store sells incense, soaps, crystals, scented candles, books and tarot cards. Its website says it offers an array of metaphysical, New Age, occult, witchcraft and pagan products “serving many different spiritual paths.”

Several hate crimes have been reported in Winnipeg in recent months. In one case, a Jewish woman found the message “die,” accompanied by a drawing of a swastika on a rock, left on her doorstep. In another case, a piece of pork — food forbidden for Muslims, according to the Qur’an — was on the windshield of the car of a member of the Muslim community.

However, Winnipeg police are reluctant to pursue the most recent incident as a hate crime. The law says a hate crime involving property “requires mischief based on bias, prejudice or hate, based on religion, race, colour or national or ethnic origin,” said Const. Rob Carver.

“It doesn’t appear that witchcraft is one of those,” he said. “It’s not a hate crime because it feels hateful. It has to be one of those things.”

Carver sympathized with what Smith is going through but said police have to be careful about making assumptions. Carver used to work in high-risk domestic violence where one of the parties would claim malicious property damage must have been committed by the person’s ex. “There’s one victim and one suspect, but unless we have evidence, we can’t move forward,” Carver said.

Smith said she has not replaced any of the three broken windows because she said a small business like hers can’t afford the cost that she estimated would be $1,800 to $2,000.

Insurance doesn’t pay for them because the cost of repairing each window didn’t exceed her deductible.

A hair salon and restaurant are Smith’s neighbours and they haven’t suffered the same vandalism, she said. She has also had people urinate on her doorway and spit on her windows, she said.

The occult store has been at its location since 2010. There are surveillance cameras in the area that may assist police, as well.