RCMP investigates racially motivated assault

Police are investigating after a North Vancouver restaurant owner was allegedly spat at and subjected to racial slurs.

Edward Hur, owner of Nobu Sushi in the 3000-block of Edgemont Boulevard, said the incident occurred Friday between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., near closing time.

He saw a woman outside who was letting her dog urinate against his front wall and door and approached her to ask why she didn't control her dog, despite a don't-pee-here sign he had posted outside.

“She turned around to me, and said, `I hate Asian people, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, it doesn't matter. I hate Korean people especially because Korean people eat dog,' ” recounted Hur.

The woman then allegedly yelled at Hur to “go back to his country,” saying “This is my country. This is my land.” Hur said the woman then spit on him twice.

At some point, his wife gave him a phone and he started to record the encounter. But when the woman saw a camera pointed at her, she stopped her tirade and did a 180-degree turn, said Hur.

The video he shared with Postmedia News shows the woman telling Hur to “get a life” and that “dogs are beautiful creatures.” She also claimed he was the one who told her to go back to her country, which Hur said he didn't say.

Witnesses and customers saw the heated argument, including one who alerted a TV news outlet.

The incident has left Hur shaken: “It was difficult, shocking.”

He had heard of similar racially charged incidents in the news, but didn't expect it to happen in Edgemont Village.

“Canada is my country too,” said Hur, who has lived in Canada for 24 years and run the restaurant for nearly 19.

This isn't the first racially charged incident he's had with the woman, who had on several occasions over the last three years let her dog pee outside Hur's establishment. He has asked her to control her dog several times, but “she never listens to me.”

Last summer, around closing time, the same woman came up to Hur's wife who was cleaning a table outside and said: “Boo, go back to your country,” said Hur. “It's getting worse. She's getting more cross.”

Since last week's incident, Hur has received an outpouring of support and love from customers and strangers across B.C.

“I'm so thankful,” he said. North Van RCMP said the assault is being investigated as a possible hate-motivated crime.