Calgary teacher fends off racial attack in Manitoba

Fatima says man became abusive, ordered her to take off her hijab and go back to her country

A teacher who came to Canada from Bangladesh eight years ago says a man who claimed to be a Nazi launched racist verbal attacks at her for wearing a hijab during a visit to Manitoba this summer.

Kaniz Fatima of Calgary posted video of the encounter on social media this week and says women who wear hijabs need to be prepared for such comments.

She says she was with relatives on July 2 near Pinawa, about 95 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. They were driving around looking for scenic spots and asked a man in a parking lot for directions.

Fatima says the man quickly became abusive and told her he was a Nazi, then ordered her to take off her hijab and go back to her country.

Two women who were passing by heard the exchange and told the man that Fatima had just as much right to be in Canada as he did.

“get ready to face those racist filthy comments if you have a hijab on. If it happened to me, it might happen to you.”

Kaniz Fatima

In the video, the man can be heard telling Fatima: “I’m a Nazi. Do you know what a Nazi is? Take your head towel off in this country.”

The teacher calls him a racist and tells him she can dress any way she wants, but the man tells her: “It (the hijab) supports Muslims” and moments later he says: “Go back to your country.”

“This is my country,” Fatima replied.

“No, it’s not,” the man said. One of the two passersby can be heard telling Fatima: “You don’t even have to explain yourself. You’re just as much Canadian as he is.”

Fatima says she was shocked and scared for herself and her family, but there was no physical confrontation.

Helmut-Harry Loewen, a retired University of Winnipeg sociology professor who monitors hate groups, said the encounter seems to be part of a trend.

“We’ve certainly seen here in Manitoba a rise ... in open expressions of racism, or Islamophobia in particular,” Loewen said Thursday.

“There’s an increased willingness, I would venture to say, on the part of some critics ... of refugee and immigration policy, to be much bolder and to break certain taboos around racial discourse which we haven’t seen in many, many years.”

Loewen said while many people argue the election of Donald Trump as United States president has emboldened some people in Canada and the U.S. to speak more overtly about racist feelings, the reaction to immigration policies in Canada also paints a disturbing picture.

“I would also add that the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also unleashed a storm, a torrent, of hate aimed against Trudeau because of his migrant policy,” Loewen said.

“If you look at a whole range of websites and also statements made by individuals ... Trudeau is cast as a terrorist sympathizer. In other words, proponents of a refugee policy of welcoming migrants to Canada are being cast as terrorists.”