P.E.I. minister decries suspicious fire
Last Updated: Sunday, October 24, 2010 | 7:10 PM AT
CBC News
A United Church minister on P.E.I. spoke from the pulpit Sunday about what she alleges was a hate crime in the small community of Little Pond.
Two men fled from their house in the eastern community Oct. 18 after the home caught fire at around 4 a.m. Police are treating the fire as a criminal matter.
Rev. Beth Johnston said she has been told the two men are gay, and spoke about the need for tolerance during a sermon to about 85 people at Dundas United Church.
"I think my role is to get people to stop and pause and think about what kind of community we want to live in," she told CBC News. "The kind of community where people can live in safety and without fear that there's going to be this kind of thing happen to people just because they're different."
She said such hate-filled behaviour is unacceptable and in an email to the Charlottetown Guardian said she wanted to go on record as "deploring such hate crimes."
Police have not called the incident a hate crime, but they say it is a suspected arson.
The two men have not spoken to the media.
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