‘We’re way better than this’: B.C. politician shocked by possible hate crime on bus
Posted July 22, 2019 9:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The racial, verbal, and physical attack on a Vancouver bus over the weekend left many shocked and saddened online.
It caught the attention of Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s Parliamentary Secretary of Sport and Multiculturalism.
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Responding to the assault, he says his immediate response was disgust.
“As a society, as province, as a country, I know we’re way better than this,” he says. “I’ve been travelling the province and hearing about incidents of racism and hate, and so to see it live, happening via video, it was really disheartening.”
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He says traveling through the province, he’s hearing from councillors that they didn’t even know these types of hate crime were happening in their communities.
“Often, cases of hate and racism are not reported. People don’t report them because, either they’re too scared or they don’t’ know where to go, and that’s been what jumped at me most in these dialogues, is how frequently these things are actually happening, and people don’t know it,” he says.
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Kahlon says the attack goes against the values of British Columbians.
“I would say to these young women, or to anyone that’s faced that: we must strive to be better,” he says. “We can’t be feeding this level of hate and racism that we’re starting to see creep up.”
Two teens visiting from Brazil were yelled at by a woman for not speaking English on Sunday night.
Transit Police are investigating it as a hate crime, and are still looking for the woman at the centre of it.
Federal NDP Leader responds
Meantime, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has also weighed in on the incident on the bus, saying people should not be mocked or assaulted for speaking languages other than English in public.
“This is horrible. Whether you live here or are just visiting, no one should be assaulted – or mocked – for speaking a language other than English in public. Too many politicians are giving too much space for this kind of racist assault to happen. It needs to stop,” he said in a tweet.
– With files from Jonathan Szekeres
