Victim speaks out after being target of anti-Asian rant at Montreal grocery store
CBC
WARNING: Some readers may find details in this story disturbing
Ken Mak was waiting in line to buy some groceries at an IGA on Nun's Island in Montreal on Monday when an unidentified woman, pulling her mask off her mouth when she spoke, demanded to know if he was Chinese.
"I told her 'yes' and then she started questioning me and trying to get information about the coronavirus," Mak said.
"Before I could respond, she would cut me off and start her monologue about how Chinese people are to blame for the whole coronavirus."
Mak and his girlfriend back away from the woman, concerned that she was repeatedly uncovering her face, and he began recording as an employee intervened.
That video is now making the rounds online, and Mak is speaking out against racism toward Asian people. He said some people are misinformed about the pandemic, and "she's a victim of misinformation."
"It's unfortunate that the Asian community has to put up with this," said Mak, and he would like to make his fellow Canadians aware that these types of attacks are happening.
"We need to look ourselves in the mirror and think about our values."
The video shows a woman dressed in sweat pants and a winter parka, flashing her middle finger, cursing and threatening to get a family lawyer involved whenever somebody stands up to her.
A customer can be heard off-camera, asking the woman to "leave these people alone. What's wrong with you? Shame on you."
The woman responds with curses and finger pointing, raising her voice and continuing her anti-Asian rant. Other customers shout at her, and she points her phone's camera at them, calls them losers and says her family lawyer will protect her.
A store employee tells her to take her stuff and leave. He then walks her toward the door before the video ends.
Quebec's minister responsible for the fight against racism, Benoit Charette, denounced the video on Twitter Wednesday.
"Desolate, shocking and condemnable! Behaviour of this kind simply has no place in Quebec," he wrote.
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