St. John's student warns public after man hurls racist slurs and death threats in local park

This story contains graphic examples of hate speech, vulgar language and slurs:

A St. John's student wants to warn Canadian newcomers about risks to their safety after he was confronted by a man who threatened to drown him in Sunshine Rotary Park on Sunday.

Taranpreet Singh, 21, his cousin and a friend were spending the afternoon pondside when Singh says a white man walking a large dog passed by, saying he wanted to drown the trio.

The three men, shaken, tried to walk up the trail to leave the park, but the man turned around and returned to the pond before they could leave.

Singh told CBC News that they asked the man why he had threatened them. 

The question sparked a racist tirade from the unidentified man.

Singh was able to discreetly capture some of the man's rant on his phone.

"You're all f--king dirbags. Dirtbag ragheads," the man yells in the video, walking briskly toward the group and gesturing aggressively.

"I hate you people, man. You're taking over my whole country," the man is heard saying. 

One of Singh's group tries to placate the man, saying "it's alright, it's alright," off-camera. The man replies, saying "you're swarming like f--cking rats. Do you see me in Iran, or Afghanistan, or Pakistan?"

Singh and his group told the man they were from India. "You're not from Canada," he yells. "You've got a rag on your head.... Indians, there you go. Same shit, different pile."

The man accused them of taking money from the Canadian government. In a phone interview, Singh said the group tried to explain they had actually paid large sums of money — he estimates more than $40,000 so far, for his own fees — to study in Canada.

The man continues to pace, slapping the back of his hand against his palm, saying "the white boy ain't going to deal with you guys rolling in on us like this."

Singh says eventually the man's friend pulled him away, after noticing Singh had recorded the tirade. Singh says they walked back to their car and drove to a Tim Hortons coffee shop, sitting silently in the parking lot.

They were so shaken they weren't able to eat that night, he said.

Hate crimes often go unreported, advocate says

Recording a hate crime, staying calm, and reporting it — whether to police, media or a community organization — is exactly the advice Sobia Shaikh would have given Singh.

Shaikh, co-chair of the Anti-Racism Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador, told CBC News that attacks like the one on Singh are common, but often don't reach the public eye.

"We know that reported hate crimes have tripled since 2019," she said, but "most things do not get reported."

Victims often fear the justice system, and don't want to be on the receiving end of further discrimination, she said.

"Many of us don't trust police to do the right things and the justice system to actually deal with hate in a way that's meaningful," she said. "We don't trust that system."

But targets of racist attacks can still turn to community groups and advocates, Shaikh says — and, in fact, should. "Making this public is really, really important," she said. "These one-off examples are not the whole story. We really have seen so many examples."

Singh says he can't watch the video he took: it's too traumatizing. He hasn't told his family about it, either, and didn't want to report the attack to police and have to deal with the justice system. But he sent it to a few social media accounts he follows in hopes of warning others about the risks of racial discrimination in Newfoundland.

"Other people shouldn't have the same situation, and they should be aware of this," he said. 

Singh moved to Canada at 19, first settling in Toronto. He moved to St. John's to work and study three months ago. This is his first experience as the target of a racist attack in a country that feels like a second home, he says, noting the attack has him questioning whether it's safe for his parents and sister to maybe one day move here.

While he feels welcomed in Newfoundland overall so far, his arrival in St. John's came with a disclaimer, he adds.

"My friends, my cousins, have warned me these things might happen here. But we never thought we would experience this," Singh said.

"In two years, I've never missed my home that much. But I missed it on that day."

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