VANCOUVER - Two more videos of racist rants have surfaced showing people in Metro Vancouver telling others to leave Canada.
In one, a man outside a Richmond condo is washing his car in a space clearly labelled "no car washing permitted." The person recording the video, who asked not to be identified. can be heard informing the man he shouldn’t be washing his car there.
He then repeatedly asks the man, “What are your comments about China again?” The man responds by saying, “I hate f*cking Chinese. This is a f*cking invasion.” He then tells the man recording it to “go back to your country.”
The second video was captured on a bus on Davie Street. The man who sent it to CTV News said he and his friends were “totally shocked and surprised as this harassment began from no previous altercation or contact with the woman.”
In the video, a woman can be heard saying, “I’m a Canadian citizen and I’m sick of you rich people coming here and acting better than us because your rich parents paid for you to speak English and you suck at it.”
The man recording the video laughs and the woman says, “I’m Canadian and you’re not.” The person who submitted the video told CTV News in an email he and his friend are Canadians and were raised in the Tri-Cities since they were seven years old.
The man explained the reason he sent in the video is “to raise awareness to the recent increase in such types of racially motivated incidents in the Metro Vancouver transit system and call on the appropriate authorities to action so that we can prevent these incidents in the future and everyone can feel safe again in the streets of Metro Vancouver.”
The two videos come less than a week after a woman yelled at staff at a Burnaby Shoppers Drug Mart, telling a staff member to speak English in Canada and speak Chinese somewhere else.
Alan Dutton, a member of Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research society told CTV News over the phone that “the problem in Canada right now is that people seem to think this is a normal thing.” He went on to explain this isn’t a new phenomenon, but that young people are increasingly being "recruited" through social media to have these views.
“These are young people in high school from privileged families and they are being recruited into this ideology," Dutton said. "We’ve seen this in terms of the convergence of the far right and mainstream political parties.”
Tony McAleer, a former organizer for the White Aryan Resistance in Vancouver, agreed that there's a growing trend.
McAleer has given up his old ways and co-founded Life after Hate, an organization that promotes tolerance. He told CTV News that recording racist incidents is a start, but that witnesses and bystanders have to "act with more courage in these situations."
"We have to be active bystanders in this world that is increasingly becoming more fearful," McAleer said. "As human beings, we come from two places: fear or love."
Sgt. Clint Hampton with Metro Vancouver Transit Police said officers investigated the incident on the night bus.
“The person’s racially charged comments were inappropriate and inexcusable, however, they were not criminal. We encourage anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation or who witnesses an event like this anywhere on the transit system to please call Transit Police 604-515-8300 or discreetly text us at 8-7-7-7-7-7," Hampton said in an email.
Richmond RCMP said the other incident involving a man washing his car was never reported to police.
