Man charged with hate crime has history of racist language, violence

A 42-year-old man has been arrested for putting up posters with hateful messages. Signs were taped to the window that used the N-word. Another using slurs against the LGBTQ community. One calling Nazis heroes and others calling Muslims and Christians evil. Gracie Garrett has lived in the area for close to 10 years. It just made me feel really uncomfortable. This is a pretty quiet neighborhood and we're pretty close with our neighbors. And to know that someone who is, you know, spreading such hate is, like, right there, it was pretty shocking to me. Winnipeg police arrested Michael Ryan Wallbank. He's charged with four counts of willful promotion of hatred and one count of willful promotion of hate symbols. Court records show Wallbank has a history of assaults dating back more than 10 years. Most recently, in 2021, Wallbank assaulted an off-duty police officer and spewed racial slurs towards him. He was given three years probation for the incident, where a judge said she didn't think Wallbank needed jail time, instead suggesting he get counseling and treatment for mental health concerns. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network says these signs qualify as hate speech, according to the Willful Promotion of Hatred section of the Criminal Code. Executive Director Evan Balgord believes Wallbank may have been struggling with mental health. He's saying that a collection of groups are evil in a way that is not like ideologically consistent necessarily with sort of modern strains of how we see hate expressed. During that 2021 hearing, a lawyer said Wallbank was enlisted in the armed forces. At that time, his mom said there was a noticeable difference in his behavior when he returned home. Wallbank has been detained in custody. Mike Carcino, CBC News, Winnipeg.