This person really didn’t want her photo taken.

From here:

What constitutes a physical assault in Toronto these days?

This would appear to be straightforward. If, for example, one individual punches another, surely that’s assault. Especially if the punch in question was witnessed. And photographed.

But as I learned firsthand on Sunday, a fist in the face doesn’t necessarily constitute assault in our increasingly culturally sensitive Toronto.

The details: I was at Yonge-Dundas Square with my nine-year-old son. We ate pizza. We drank bubble tea. And I used my new Canon camera to take photos of this neon shrine.

Suddenly, a woman wearing a hijab ran toward me. She was part of a group that included two women wearing full face-covering burkas. She was screaming: “We are Muslim! You do not take pictures of us!” (Odd. I can’t find the “no photos” rule in the Qur’an.)

I informed the lady I was in a public square in a democracy. I can actually take pictures of whomever I please.

And then: Ka-pow! Her fist collided with my face. Worse, she almost knocked my new camera from my hands.

When I was in Turkey, where Islam is the predominant religion, I photographed a lot of people; only a few of them seemed less than happy about it. None of them tried to slug me.

This particular gentlemen kept wagging his finger at me, but ended up laughing when I took more photos of the wagging: