Train Passengers Defend Elderly Asian Couple From Racist Tirade

A Canadian woman in Vancouver who yelled “Go back to the Philippines” to an elderly Asian couple on the city’s SkyTrain was a little shocked when the other passengers told her to leave.

The incident, which happened Monday afternoon, started when an unidentified woman started yelling at the couple, who were speaking Tagalog, because she thought they were too loud.

The male apologized to the woman, while explaining it’s normal for people to talk loudly in the Philippines, according to HuffPost Canada.

The woman responded angrily, “I was born and raised right here,” before adding. “Go back to the fucking Philippines.”

Ashley Klassen posted the encounter on Facebook and called it “probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. Unfiltered Vancouver racism.”

Paula Correa, who, like the couple is also Filipino, said she posted a video of the encounter on social media because she wanted her fellow Canadians to see what happened.

“Social media provides an illusion that these things happen in other places, in other countries ― in the USA, for example,” she told local radio station CKWX. “But it can happen in the very place we call our home and it does happen and it did happen.”

As Klassen’s video shows, numerous passengers came to the elderly couple’s defense including a teenager who suggested the woman yelling at them, ’Get the fuck off the train!”

He then said, “You’re racist.”

The woman replied, “I am not racist. I asked them to talk a little lower.”

During the altercation, another rider alerted transit police officers by pressing an emergency strip, according to CTV News.

The woman exited the train before police officers arrived.

Officers interviewed the elderly couple, who said they didn’t want any police involvement, according to a news release.

Transit police reviewed the videos of the incident and determined the woman had used profane and racially charged language toward the elderly couple.

An investigation has been launched and officers plan to speak to the aggressor who has been identified as a 75-year-old woman “known to police for documented anger related issues in the past.”

Correa said she was shocked by the incident, but is glad to see others felt the same. “I’m so glad that there were so many people who stood up against this kind of hate,” she told GlobalNews.ca.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.