Fake video a hate crime, Halifax university says

Police determining whether an offence was committed

Last Updated: Monday, December 3, 2007 | 5:38 PM AT

CBC News

Dalhousie University in Halifax has had an internet video blocked and is investigating what it considers a hate crime against a professor and his family.

The video, which has been removed from the popular YouTube website, featured a slideshow of images of the engineering professor's wife and two daughters, with audio from a pornographic movie.

The written commentary suggested the professor was pimping out his family.

"The video is a fraud," university president Tom Traves told CBC News on Monday. "In terms of its content, we believe it may well be a hate crime."

Traves said the video contained racist overtones toward Muslims in addition to the sexual content.

The professor and his family are devastated by what happened and declined an interview.

Halifax Regional Police are investigating. A spokesman said in order for this to be a hate crime, the comments must be specifically directed at a group of people.

"I guess we're still trying to determine if it is a crime or not or if it's something where the individual who posted it would be civilly liable to the individual," Const. Jeff Carr said.

The university has asked YouTube's legal department to identify the person who posted the video.

Because the item made specific references to the professor's family, Traves suspects it was done by someone who knew a great deal about him.

"It's somebody local. Whether it was a student or somebody from outside the university, I couldn't begin to say," he said.

News of the video has spread through the campus, though few have seen it.

University officials originally said the video was 20 minutes long, but a spokesman later said it was only six minutes.

Mark Greenwood, one of the professor's students, hasn't seen the video, but he said he finds the whole idea "terrible."

"From what I hear about the video, it's awful. And I don't see why that would be warranted in any way for somebody to make a video like that about him," Greenwood said.

Students told of 'hateful attack'

Traves sent out a campus-wide message voicing his "personal disgust for this anonymous and hateful attack" Friday, a day after an e-mail went out to hundreds of university e-mail addresses directing recipients to YouTube.

Traves said university officials contacted the website immediately, and the video was removed.

In his e-mail, Traves said he was writing to show his support for the professor and his family and to make a point that the university was prepared to take legal action.

Dalhousie is conducting its own investigation to determine whether any of its computers were used to post the video.

So far, it does not appear the e-mails directing people to the YouTube site were sent through a university computer, Traves said.