An Indian-origin man, settled in Canada, recently encountered a racist outburst from a native, elderly woman. Ashwin Annamalai shared his experience via a social media post. The incident shed light on the “disturbing rise in hate” against Indians in recent times across Canada. Annamalai was out for a walk in Waterloo, Ontario, when the old lady allegedly “gave him the finger and spewed hate.” The woman “mistakenly assumed” he was an Indian. Annamalai has been living in Canada for six years and has already acquired citizenship.
The man tried his best to make the woman accept him as Canadian but she was not quite convinced. “When I challenged her very politely she went about her racist rants. She also is upset that there are black people in the community. She also accuses me of not speaking English & that I need to just leave,” Annamalai wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The once welcoming community of Kitchener-Waterloo has seen a disturbing rise in hate, particularly against people of colour. Here’s a personal account of what I experienced today: A random woman gave me the finger & spewed hate while I was out for a walk at Erb/Avondale ???? 1/n pic.twitter.com/TxvXeXW3Yd— Ashwin Annamalai (@ignorantsapient) October 15, 2024
The post accompanied a video where the woman was seen aggressively asking Annamalai to “go back” to his own place. “You’re not Canadian. I’m being aggressive to you because too many Indians are in Canada and I want you to go back. Your parents are not from Canada, your grandparents are not from here,” she yelled.
Annamalai later asked the anonymous woman if she could speak French, which is another official language of Canada. She, however, ignored the topic and continued to say in English, “Go back. Go back to India.”
“This isn’t an isolated incident. Such hate-filled encounters have been happening regularly since the beginning of the year, & people seem to be getting more emboldened,” Annamalai wrote in his X post.
“Harassing well-meaning Canadians on the streets and blaming them for no rhyme or reason isn’t the solution to the challenges we face. We as a community can definitely do much better than blaming each other & come together to find solutions to problems that plague all of us,” he added.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Such hate-filled encounters have been happening regularly since the beginning of the year, & people seem to be getting more emboldened. I’ve spoken about the racism faced by international students in our community. 2/nhttps://t.co/Ef1DAVYasF— Ashwin Annamalai (@ignorantsapient) October 15, 2024
Indians staying in Canada have been facing racial taunts often since the relationship between the two countries deteriorated. “I never faced the hardships the international students are facing nowadays. This is not the Canada I came to,” Annamali revealed to Waterloo Region Record last month. He relocated to the country in 2018 as an international student.
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