Charges are forthcoming for a woman caught on video shouting racial epithets at students during a protest against COVID-19 health measures outside a South Okanagan high school, Oliver RCMP said.
The woman seen in video footage shot on Feb. 12 has been identified through various media outlets as Silke Schulze of Oliver, B.C. She faces a fine of $2,300 under the Access to Services COVID-19 Vaccination Act, Sgt. Don Wrigglesworth of the Oliver RCMP said.
“The actions of these protestors are unacceptable,” Wrigglesworth said in an email. “The safety of children at school is very important and a place of learning appears to have been violated.”
He said the matter remains under investigation and the Oliver RCMP continues to liaise with the school administration, the town’s mayor and council, and leaders of the town’s Indo-Canadian and First Nations Community.
“I have spoken with the family of the young lady involved and will continue to liaise with her and her family. The offending adult female has been identified and charges are forthcoming,” he said.
On Saturday, Feb. 12, the Oliver RCMP detachment went to South Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver and saw a small group of anti-mask, so-called “Freedom Convoy” protesters near the school but off of school property.
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Wrigglesworth said at that time there was no indication of unruly behaviour and the officers working left and went to other calls for service. It wasn’t until the next day that they learned that the situation had escalated.
A widely circulated video shows a woman confronting teens, asking them to take off their masks, and then yelling profanities with racist connotations at two Punjabi students.
“I deserve to be in this country, do you?” the woman could be heard saying in the video. She also said to “go home” and “go back to your country.”
One of the teens who spoke to Global News said she was shocked and just kept telling the woman that she was born in Canada.
“The straight racism right to my face was just so hurtful and I am so broken inside…. I never thought this would happen right to my face,” she said. “My parents came here 30 years ago, they wanted a better life, and they moved to a country where they thought the community would make them feel safe…. That this happened to me was just heartbreaking. ”
In the video, the two go back and forth yelling at each other until the woman used another slur to describe the student and then walked away.
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