Video shows man berating women for not speaking English at B.C. SkyTrain station

A two-minute video posted to TikTok that shows a man berating two women for not speaking English at a Richmond, B.C., SkyTrain station is making the rounds on social media.

Donna Damaso said she took the video Thursday, Aug. 11 at the Richmond Brighouse station. She says two elderly Asian women were buying tickets and speaking Cantonese to each other, when they were confronted by man.

“He decided to go outside and confront them and say, ‘You’re in Canada, you should speak English,’” said Damaso.

Damaso said she didn’t know anyone involved but was so angry and upset that she had to step in and say something.

“It was my first time encountering that kind of situation,” said Damaso. “He is harassing the women so I decided to speak up and tell him it’s not right and he’s a racist.”

In the video, the man claims to be a lawyer who graduated from McGill University.

In June, 2020, CTV News Vancouver reported on another video showing a man going on a similar anti-Asian tirade who also claimed to be a lawyer and graduate from McGill.

Damaso said she was in a rush to the airport to catch a flight back home to Edmonton, and has yet to report the incident to police. She says, however, she’s considering speaking to police in the near future.

In an email to CTV News, Richmond RCMP said it encourages anyone who’s been a victim or witness of an apparent “hate-motivated incident”, to report the matter to them.

Doris Mah of the Stand With Asians Coalition says the incident is troubling but not surprising.

“It triggers all those emotional feelings in you because it could’ve been your relatives, your parents, your mother,” said Mah. “But it’s not shocking to me, because it is very common. It’s far too common in our community and it has to stop.”

The video, which was posted on Saturday, had more than 350,000 views as of Tuesday morning.