Warning: This story deals with disturbing content that may upset and trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.
Vancouver police are reviewing what they have described as an “inappropriate, disrespectful and hateful” customer tirade targeting a South Asian employee at a local Tim Hortons earlier this month.
Footage of the vicious, racist and misogynistic verbal attack on West Pender Street was filmed by another customer on Sunday and posted online on Tuesday. In the video, the white man can be heard swearing at a female staffer, shouting at her to be quiet and calling her “scum.”
“We decide what happens in this part of Canada, not you,” he tells the woman, who told him to leave the restaurant.
“This part of Canada is run by men like me.”
He makes other profoundly offensive, racialized and sexualized comments targeting female staff at the shop.
The customer who filmed the incident said he did not intervene because he feared for his safety at the time. He asked not to be identified, but told Global News on Tuesday that the interaction appeared to stem from one of the employees standing up for herself.
“When I walked into the Tim Hortons and I noticed this man was speaking to the cashier in this condescending manner, saying, ‘Atta girl, you know how to serve us,’ I became quite concerned,” the customer recounted.
“He was becoming loud, he was unhinged, so I took out my phone and as I noticed she had responded back to him for making that comment, he decided he wanted his money back. He was very aggressive about getting his money back.”
The customer said that the staffer agreed to give the man his money back, and asked him — the next customer — to go up to an available till. That’s when the man made racist comments targeting the South Asian community and was asked to leave.
At one point, the man said the staffer would soon meet his girlfriend, who “doesn’t like mouthy little” people like her.
“To me it came across as a veiled threat and it just escalated from that point on,” said the customer.
“I decided not to say anything, I was concerned for my own safety.”
Global News has reached out to Tim Hortons for comment and asked what kinds of support it makes available to staff who experience such traumatic and disturbing incidents. Tim Hortons did not respond in time for publication.
In an interview, Vancouver police Sgt. Steve Addison said the “disgusting,” “vile,” “hateful and hurtful” video is under review. He called the behaviour “intolerable.”
“It’s totally inappropriate. Our job now is to determine whether it’s also criminal,” he said. “If there is a criminal offence that takes place we’ll certainly conduct a criminal investigation.”
Vancouver police are currently reaching out to the coffee shop staff and collecting more information about the circumstances of the incident.