Authorities are treating the sexual assault of a Native woman in Ontario as a hate crime.

The woman reported being assaulted, strangled and left for dead in Thunder Bay. She said her assailants -- described as two non-Native men -- hurled racial epithets at her and even brought up the Idle No Move Movement.

“They called her squaw and dirty Indian as she was walking and they were throwing things at her from the car, pieces of garbage and cans,” Christi Belcourt, who is acting as a spokesperson for the victim, told The Globe and Mail.

The woman is from a First Nation in Ontario.

Get the Story:
Thunder Bay sex assault, hate-crime probe sharpen focus on native women’s plight (The Globe and Mail 1/3)
Sex assault victim told ‘they’re gonna do it again’ (CBC 1/3)
First Nations woman remains fearful as police investigate assault (CBC 1/2)
Police investigate possible hate crime (CBC 12/31)