The facts involved in an incident where a man allegedly urinated on the Komagata Maru Memorial in Downtown Vancouver do not constitute a criminal offence.

The Vancouver Police shared details recently about the incident, but are providing clarification following some inaccurate media reports.

After being informed of the incident that occurred on December 3rd, an investigator from the VPD Hate Crime Unit was assigned. Police identified, located and interviewed the suspect and an extensive investigation into the incident was completed.

While the actions of an individual may be offensive and disrespectful, it does not make those actions criminal. In this case, investigators determined that the actions were not criminal and confirmed this assessment with Crown Counsel. Simply stated, urinating in a public place is not a criminal offence in Canada, regardless of the context, unless the elements of an offence are present as set out in the Criminal Code. Those elements were not present in this case.

It has been suggested that police could have issued the man a bylaw ticket for the incident. This was, in fact, one of the options that was contemplated, but certain underlying facts and circumstances led to the conclusion that a bylaw ticket would not be appropriate.