Toronto Police confirm the suspect, Donald Joseph MacLeod, was taken into custody in 52 Division on Saturday — one day a before his 29th birthday.
“He did not turn himself in,” Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook said.
Police issued a news release Thursday — a day after the victim, Stan Behal, filed a complaint to cops — seeking information on the incident that left 63-year-old veteran photographer with a concussion and was captured on video as he and Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy covered a Toronto Against Fascism event on Aug. 11 around 2:30 p.m.
“It is good there has been an arrest for the assault,” Behal said after learning a charge had been laid. “It’s been my only intention to make it safer for working journalists to do their job in this current climate.”
The Antifa-like rally was supposed to be a counter-demonstration to a WCAI Canada rally, a so-called “Patriots” group that proclaims to stand “against globalism” and “for Canadian culture preservation,” according to their social media accounts. Other groups have called them anti-Muslim.
When the WCAI was a no-show, Behal alleges the crowd became aggressive in their attitudes towards police and the handful of media members who were there.
According to Behal, who was interviewed by CBC’s The Current, he was struck on the head with force by a protester in a grey T-shirt.
“Out of nowhere, a man lunged, I saw an arm swinging towards my left temple, I managed to block it, partially, he did hit me,” Behal recalled.
“He did grab with his right hand, my left arm and pulled me towards him,” Behal said. “And with his left arm, he proceeded to pound the top of my head, grab the top of my hat and hair and pull it off my head.”
“I think the intention was to hurt me, I don’t think it was as simple as swiping a hat,” he added.
Behal is currently on medical leave.
MacLeod’s Facebook page appears to make overt comments regarding the incident.
“Your [sic] making fools of yourselves. every single one of you. the police, the sun, the star, the globe,” MacLeod posted. “Whats the charge going to be exactly? taking someones hat and throwing it back to them?”
On MacLeod’s Facebook profile, he lists his interest as “occult gonzo journalism” and writes that he studied at Trebas Institute, a digital media school.
Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, told The Canadian Press the hat-grabbing has become a feature of some protests and typically involves people removing the “Make America Great Again” caps that have become prevalent since Donald Trump launched his successful bid for the U.S. presidency.
But Balgord said disrupting journalists in the course of their duties crosses the line.
“The guy who did this should not have done this,” he said. “You do not lay hands on journalists at demonstrations.”
At least one industry group said Behal’s experience raises alarms about the treatment of journalists in society at large.
An assault on a news photographer is not worthy of national news coverage? Pardon? You are a media critic arguing for LESS coverage of violence toward the press? https://t.co/IfxvB2Wrqk— Robyn Urback (@RobynUrback) August 14, 2018
“In an era where epithets like ‘fake news’ are undermining the integrity of journalists around the world, we are seeing real, tangible effects of a concerted effort to establish distrust between the public and the press,” Cole Burston, president of the News Photographers Association of Canada, said in a recent statement.
“The incident with Mr. Behal underscores the growing challenge our colleagues face in simply doing their jobs, and that’s not acceptable.”
MacLeod is charged with one count of assault.
The accused was released on his own recognizance with a promise to appear at Old City Hall court on Sept. 26.
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