A Kelowna, B.C., man says a racist road rage incident involving his parents and young son has been difficult to relive after video of the confrontation spread widely on social media.
“It’s disgusting,” said Sam Singla. “His tone was very aggressive. He was very vile.”
The incident happened on Mother’s Day near downtown Kelowna and involved Singla’s parents and his five-year-old son.
Dashcam footage from another driver appears to show what led up to the confrontation.
The video shows a driver in front of Singla’s parent’s vehicle making a U-turn.
The vehicle makes a temporary stop.
The video then shows Singla’s parents making a turn into a parking lot.
But while the couple is turning into the parking lot, the driver that made the U-turn starts to back up and the two vehicles collide.
“It’s pretty clear from the video that he had backed up into my dad,” Singla said. “Both parties heard the noise, they came out and he started yelling racial slurs at my dad.”
Video of the altercation, which has circulated online, shows a man in a pink shirt yelling racist slurs at Singla’s parents, who have lived in Canada for decades, as well as at the person filming the incident.
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RCMP confirmed they investigated the matter and said while the incident involved verbal abuse and racial language in a public setting, police stated, “they did not meet the Criminal Code elements required for a hate propaganda-related offence.”
Conservative MP for Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna Dan Albas condemned the incident on his social media platforms.
“While perhaps no laws were broken, to me, it’s despicable,” Albas said.
Albas added that as an elected official, it’s important for his constituents to know what his values are
“If you don’t speak out and say that’s totally unacceptable as a society, as a country, as a community, then then nothing is unacceptable because we have to draw the line,” Albas said.
“And I think it’s up to public officials, such as myself, to say the line was clearly crossed.”
Singla said his family has received strong community support but added that some of the comments defending the man online were more shocking than the incident itself.
“People called him a hero and a patriot and people called for him to be, like, ‘I want to buy him a beer. He should be our next MP,’” Singla said. “That’s what really disgusted me.”
Despite the incident, Singla said he is not angry at the man involved but added he hopes he gets help.
“I think it’s an individual that’s hurting,” he said. “He’s obviously very angry inside and he’s holding on to a lot of things.”
he didnt signal
Average day in ashole land
Rutland was a nice place to live 50 years ago. Now it’s the biggest sht hole in Canada
Name is Brett Dewey.
How can it be that no crimes were committed when we all clearly heard him uttering threats? “Get back in the truck or I’ll knock you…” this is a crime. Uttering threats is the charge. Hate crime/racism is the motivation/ condition. This isn’t rocket science. This is literally what the law what created for. The fact that the police/crown aren’t willing to go there and instead they allow threats and intimidation to occur and claim it isn’t a crime is insane.
The most frightening part of this story isn’t one angry man yelling slurs in a parking lot — it’s the number of people in our community rushing to defend him, praise him, and call him a “hero.”
Think about what that says to every immigrant family, every visible minority, and every child growing up in Kelowna watching this unfold. A five-year-old kid witnessed grown adults cheering on racism and hate like it was something patriotic.
If your first instinct after watching that video was to buy this man a beer instead of feeling ashamed for our community, then maybe the problem runs a lot deeper than one road rage incident.
Can’t get away with anything anymore
Typical kelowna ashole
Horrible and unacceptable behaviour racist venom has no place here
Life’s tough.
Put on a helmet ,if you can’t cope.