As the Davie Village gears up to host Vancouver's annual Pride week, local leaders are asking police for more beat cops to protect parade-goers after recent suspected gay bashings downtown.
NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert called for a police presence in the community similar to the beat cops who monitor nightlife on Granville Street and those who walked the street during the Olympics.
"We'd just like to see that extended up the Davie Village," Herbert said.
The NDP's public safety critic Mike Farnworth also spoke alongside Herbert today.
"I think it's important that we send a very strong message that hate and intolerance has no place in our communities, no place in our province," Farnworth said. "We take hate crimes seriously and people involved in hate crimes will be prosecuted."
Guy Dube, who is organizing New Westminster's first diversity day next month, says extra police presence is a good start, but education is even better.
"You really just have to open and educate people that it's not scary to be gay, or that person beside you is not going to go after you, or hit on you because you're the same sex. Feeling secure is important."
A recent Statistics Canada study shows that Metro Vancouver has the highest rate for hate crimes in Canada, especially against gay and lesbian people.
The last two months have seen two suspected gay bashings in downtown Vancouver.
Brothers Parminder Singh Peter Bassi and Ravinder Robbie Bassi have been charged in connection with an attack on David Holtzman and his partner Peter Regier on June 12.
Alexandre Tchernychev and Aaron Alexander Hahn, both 21, were charged after a gay man was violently attacked near the intersection of Davie and Burrard streets on July 1.
Meanwhile, closing arguments began Monday in the trial of Shawn Woodward, a man accused a homophobic attack at the Fountainhead Pub last year.
Richard Dowrey was left with permanent brain damage after a punch from Woodward knocked him to the ground.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry
