Canada horrified after woman tells B.C. teens to go back to where they came from
Canadians are horrified after a U.S.-born woman told two B.C. teenagers to "go back to where you came from" in a viral video that has been shared more than 2,500 times on Facebook.
In the video taken on June 28, the unidentified woman is seen loudly shouting at two teenagers for picking a berry bush on a popular hiking trail in Coquitlam, B.C.
"I pay for this park, and I don't like to see people wrecking it," she says.
The woman calls the teenagers "complete twits" and curses at them before telling them to go back where they came from.
When the teenagers respond by calling the woman a "colonzier" and ask where she's from, the unidentified hiker reveals that she's from the United States originally.
A woman in B.C. threw a fit and told two girls to go back to where they came from after getting mad at them for picking berries in a park 🤦♀️-📸 sarapashandi #Canada #BritishColumbia #Vancouver #RacisminCanada pic.twitter.com/MJ0nxujuQy
— Freshdaily (@freshdaily) June 29, 2020
The video was taken by Sara Pashandi, one of the teenagers present during the incident. The other girl's mother, Azita Ebadati, shared the footage to Facebook.
"Some racist lady came up to my daughter Elika and her friend Sara when they were on a hike at Minnekhada regional park because they were eating berries from a branch!" wrote Ebadati in the Facebook post. "She had no right."
Many Canadians agree.
I watched it. The lady was super rude from the start. Sure they shouldn’t pick the branches but is it a crime worthy of all of that condescension and racism? Because they weren’t white she assumes they are not Canadian? It appalls me!
— Beesting (@Beesting8008) June 30, 2020
"I loved every word those young ladies said to that woman," one person wrote on Facebook.
"Her first mistake was thinking they were going to just take her treatment and her second mistake was thinking she was smarter than them. Great job girls!!! I'd be proud to have a daughter like that."
Shame on her!
— LIA (@1toronto4u) June 30, 2020
Even Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart chimed in after watching the video, saying that he felt outraged by it.
"People need to understand that that attitude of the comment, 'Go back to where you came from,' is never acceptable," Stewart said to CTV News. "It's never acceptable unless you're speaking to a racist from the United States and asking her to, perhaps, take her attitude back to where she came from."
"I think we really need to, everyone, check our own privilege and look at ourselves, and really examine, 'What is it that makes me think when I look at that person that person has less right to be here?"
“Go back to where you came from,” says the woman who was born in a different country. https://t.co/T5WQM9ANZz
— Kim Siever (@kim_siever) June 30, 2020
While it is actually against park guidelines to disturb vegetation at Minnekhada Regional Park, some people are pointing out that the woman's reaction seems a little extreme.
The old lady had a valid complaint until she said go back to where you came from.
— Swedish McJesus (@vanpapipucks) June 30, 2020
Although the woman does say that she "didn't mean it" near the end of the video, many Canadians still aren't impressed by her behaviour.
"'Go back to your country' is the racist argument white people use when they have nothing better to say to back up their claim," one person wrote. "It's sickening to see this."
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