A video circulating on social media shows a disturbing racist incident that took place in Port Alberni this week.
The footage shows a truck driving slowly down a street on the Tseshaht First Nation Reserve in the early hours of Tuesday, June 2. A voice can be heard making a series of racist calls as the occupants of the vehicle drive through the area.
Nasimius Ross posted the video to his Facebook account on Tuesday and the video has already been shared a whopping 402 times."Seriously this shit is so [expletive] stupid please someone tell me they recognize this truck!" he writes. "Please share who does this especially when tension is so high!!! This just happened in my neighborhood! They were yelling racial slurs, too."
"I’m sorry my good people I posted out of anger this brought me back to when I was a young teenager when I would get called hurtful things or chased on my skateboard it triggered me.
"My second thought were my girls they weren’t home but I thought wtf are my girls/our kids going to experience this still!?"
Warning: This video contains disturbing content.
Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions released a statement on Tuesday condemning the incident.
"To hear of this kind of act is upsetting. To actually see what appears to be at the very least ignorance if not hate being expressed toward members of our community is absolutely heart-breaking and my deepest sympathies go out to each and every person in our community who has ever been the recipient of this type of behaviour and who is affected by this incident," she writes in a Facebook post.
"And while we are talking about a specific incident, I think we need to recognize that it is not an isolated situation. It would certainly be easier to write this off as a one time thing, simply a bad judgment call on someone's part. But that would be unfair to every person in this area who has ever had to be the victim of racism."
Tseshaht First Nation and the City of Port Alberni have also issued a joint statement in response to the incident on the Tseshaht First Nation Reserve.
Minions states that the City has also reached out to RCMP and will follow up with more information.
Vancouver Is Awesome has reached out to the Port Alberni RCMP and will update the story when more information is available.
