‘The TTC should be a safe place,’ Teen arrested in hate-motivated assault with weapon at busy subway station
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Toronto Police Services (TPS) are working together to increase safety after a woman was arrested in connection to a hate-motivated incident in a subway train.
On Wednesday, 18-year-old Valentina Ponte Diaz was arrested by TPS and charged in relation to an alleged hate-motivated assault at Bloor-Yonge Station last month.
According to police, on Oct. 21 at around 1:15 a.m., Diaz allegedly approached the victim aboard a subway train, and uttered homophobic slurs before spraying them with a noxious substance and fleeing the scene. The victim, who sustained minor injuries, was unknown to the accused.
The suspect has been arrested and charged with Assault with a Weapon, Weapons Dangerous, and Administer Noxious Thing with Intent, and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
In response to the incident, TTC says it is collaborating with police, and working to ensure passenger and employee safety.
“The TTC should be a safe place for all and we work diligently to keep customers and employees safe,” a spokesperson told Now Toronto on Thursday.
“When incidents occur, we support police with video/images and any witness statements our staff may have. We thank police for their quick work in making an arrest in this case.”
This is not the first hate-motivated incident to take place aboard the TTC.
In 2024, TPS reported an 88 per cent increase in hate-motivated occurrences on public transit in just one year, particularly in subway trains. Last year, 95 incidents were registered by police, compared to 50 registered the year before.
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While TPS’s Hate Crime Unit (HCU) deals with suspected hate-motivated issues, police say the TTC is responsible for managing day-to-day safety.
In April, the TTC partnered with TPS’s HCU and Community Partnerships & Engagement Unit (CPEU) to deliver a SafeTO initiative to increase awareness and reduce incidents.
“We work closely with our transit partners to support the safety of riders and staff, including responding to calls for service,” a TPS spokesperson told Now Toronto.
Police say overall hate crime reports have reduced by 38.1 per cent this year so far in Toronto, but says they don’t yet have information on TTC-specific occurrences for 2025.
