Summerside police investigating report of boy wearing orange shirt being hit in face

Police in Summerside, P.E.I., say they are investigating an alleged assault involving two boys at a local park on Canada Day.

Tara-Lynn Rioux told CBC News her 11-year-old son was injured in the incident.

She said she got a panicked call from one of the boy's friends asking her to come to the park where they had been playing basketball.

They said a racist comment had been directed at her son, who is Mi'kmaw and was wearing an "Every Child Matters" orange shirt to honour survivors of the Indigenous residential school system.

When she got there, Rioux said, her son told her that when he questioned the comment, he was hit in the face three times.

"My son was just standing there in his orange shirt covered in blood," she said. "We took the shirt off of him because I couldn't look at him standing there in that shirt to look at my baby and see him like that is rough."

She added that her son told her his friends tried to intervene to help him.

We were at the hospital for five hours. His nose is too swollen to see if it's broken. Tara-Lynn Rioux

"We were at the hospital for five hours," she said.

"His nose is too swollen to see if it's broken. There's no obvious break right now, but the swelling was too much to see."

Rioux said the boy has to go back to the doctor again next week to get a better idea of how bad the injuries are.

Police said they are still in the process of interviewing witnesses and the investigation continues.

More from CBC P.E.I.