Target of racist rant caught off-guard by incident

One of the men on the receiving end of a racist tirade caught on video says he’s never experienced anything like it since arriving in Canada more than a decade ago.

Monir Omerzai, who came to Canada from Afghanistan 13 years ago, said he was out with three friends at the Denny’s restaurant in Lethbridge last month.

He says they were laughing at a joke and chatting in Dari, their native language, when Cranbrook woman Kelly Pocha turned around and began shouting obscenities and racially charged comments at them.

“Shut your (expletive) mouth,” her rant begins. “Cause you know what? You’re dealing with a Canadian woman now, and I will leap across this table and punch you right in the (expletive) mouth.”

Pocha doubles down on her tirade when the men try to shrug off the verbal assault with laughter.

“Go back to your (expletive) country,” she continues.

The men respond, saying, “It doesn’t matter, we’re all Canadians,” while the woman repeatedly interrupts.

Omerzai said the incident has deeply upset him.

“The hate that we get from people for no reason, just to have a dinner there. It shouldn’t turn out to be like that,” he said.

Pocha was fired from her job at Cranbrook Dodge on Wednesday after the video went viral.

“We have recently become aware of a disturbing video that involves one of our employees,” the dealership’s owner, Dave Girling, said in a statement. “The employee in question has been terminated and we deeply apologize for her actions.”

Lethbridge police chief Robert Davis said Thursday that at the time of the incident there was insufficient evidence for charges.

“It’s a weekend, it’s 12:50 a.m. and it’s not unlikely for us to get calls of a disturbance at a restaurant, the bar district, you name it. We get the call as a fight in progress inside the restaurant, that’s the only information we have at the time.

“We get there, we are briefed by the restaurant staff that they have separated them and ultimately want them to leave. We stood by to help facilitate that.”

Davis said the first officer arrived on scene at 12:52 a.m. — minutes after the call came in.

By 1 a.m., the group of men left the restaurant and at 1:05 a.m., he said the husband and wife left. He added that police didn’t escort either group out of the Denny’s.

Davis said speculation of charges are premature.

In a statement, the Lethbridge Police said they have spoken with several people involved and that more interviews are scheduled.

Pocha, who described herself as a hard-working mother of three, says she was drinking on the night of the incident. She said the men were looking at her and laughing, while saying things in a language she didn’t understand.

Pocha admitted to Lethbridge News Now that what she said was racist, adding the comments don’t reflect who she is.

“If I could rewind and take it back I would. But I can’t,” she said.