"Some people in Waterloo are just looking for a scapegoat to blame for all their economic problems," says Indian-origin Canadian citizen Ashwin Annamalai, who recently faced racial abuse from an elderly woman while walking down the road in his neighbourhood in Waterloo situated in the country's Ontario province.
Annamalai, who moved to Canada in 2018 as a student, had taken to social media on Wednesday, 16 October, to upload videos of him confronting a woman who had allegedly made offensive gestures at him and later asked him to 'go back' to his own country.
While speaking to The Quint, the 32-year-old software professional shared the experience of what transpired before he started filming – which then led him to go and confront the woman.
'Showed Me the Middle Finger, Went on a Racist Rant'
Annamalai, who has been a resident of Waterloo for the last six years, said that he was going for a walk in his neighbourhood when the incident took place.
"While I was walking, I noticed an elderly woman showing the middle finger to me on the other side of the road," he told The Quint.
He then crossed the street to ask her what the matter was and why she was so agitated by his presence.
"I tried to explain to her that I had not done her any harm. But she went on a racist rant, which I wasn't able to record on camera," he added.
Annamalai said that the woman then started screaming at him, asking him to 'go back' where he had come from. That is when he started recording her.
In the two videos he uploaded on social media, Annamalai can be seen asking for an explanation from the woman regarding her behaviour. He can also be heard calmly telling the woman that he is a Canadian citizen just like her, but she refused to believe him – saying that his parents and grandparents are from India.
"You’re not Canadian. I’m being aggressive to you because too many Indians are in Canada, and I want you to go back," she is heard saying and repeatedly asking him to go back to his country of origin.
Later, she is heard accusing him of not speaking English properly. In response, Annamalai starts speaking to her in French, which is among Canada's official languages and widely spoken in the country, and asks her to do the same. While the woman says that she knows French, she walks away while using expletives.
Meanwhile, Annamalai said that he recorded a statement with the local police, which told him that the matter is currently under investigation. "I don't know if any action has been taken against her yet," he said.
The Quint has also reached out to the Waterloo Regional Police Service but has not received a response yet.
Waterloo Plagued by Economic Woes, Hate Crimes
This incident is the latest in a long line of disturbing events that have taken place in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Canada in the last year or so.
According to data released by New Statistics Canada, Waterloo had the highest rate of police-reported hate crimes in Canada in 2023.
From 15 hate crimes reported in 2019, Waterloo witnessed as many as 229 last year – accounting for 34 percent hate crimes in the region per 100,000 people.
Some analysts have drawn a direct correlation between the rising influx of immigrants into the region and a rise in racist incidents.
This comes as Waterloo is among the top destinations for international students, including Indians and other South Asians, thus drawing in lakhs of people from different countries over the years, many of whom eventually become Canadian citizens and settle in the country.
The University of Waterloo, in fact, boasted of 25,000 foreign students out of a total of 42,000 in 2022 – accounting for more than half of their intake that year. The university also stated that students from over 120 countries have studied there.
"Waterloo used to be a pretty welcoming place. It has a university so people from all over the world used to come here to study," Annamalai told The Quint. "But for the last six months or so, things started going south – especially for people with brown skin."
In the last few years, residents of Waterloo have had to combat major economic woes – from high prices at grocery stores to high rates of unemployment and housing problems.
Data indicated that the prices of homes and rent had increased drastically in the last few years coupled with a shortage of community housing – with 28 times more households on the waiting list in 2023 than there were in 2022.
Further, the region's population grew at twice the national average between 2015 and 2022.
"People are mad, they are disappointed, and a lot of them are just looking for someone to pin all their problems on," Annamalai told The Quint.
In fact, some of the reasons attributed to explain an increase in hate crimes by New Statistics Canada are anti-immigrant sentiment and anti-newcomer sentiments, a highly amplified political environment, and polarisation across social media.
The recent incident also comes in the backdrop of rapidly deteriorating relations between India and Canada over allegations of the Indian government's involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in 2023, with the Justin Trudeau government recently expelling six diplomats from the Indian Embassy in Canada – a move to which India responded with tit-for-tat measures.
When asked whether the diplomatic riff had anything to do a rise of aggressive incidents against Indians, Annamalai said:
"The diplomatic tensions between India and Canada are mostly affecting people who need a visa to take flights to either of the destinations. For Canadians who have no ties with India, they don't even care about this. They care about day-to-day issues, like grocery prices going up, rent going up, unemployment et al. These are the triggers; it has nothing to do with India-Canada ties."Ashwin Annamalai
Netizens Divided Over Incident
Meanwhile, there was an outpouring of support for Annamalai among netizens on social media, with several Canadian officials also coming out to express solidarity with him.
Member of Provincial Parliament for Kitchener Centre Aislinn Clancy said that it was "incredibly disappointing" to see the racism Annamalai had to face.
"We have a lot of work to do in Kitchener to combat hate in our communities and I'm proud of Ashwin for his advocacy on the issue. Hate has no place in Canada," she took to X to say.
Similarly, Waterloo Councillor Rob Deutschmann said that there was "no justification" for the woman's behaviour against Annamalai.
"Ashwin is a valued member of our Waterloo Region community and we are fortunate to have him here. Despite his experiences with overt racism, he continues to work selflessly to make our community a better place," he said.
On the other hand, when the video was posted by another account on X called 'Canadian Patriot', several users in the comments took the side of the unidentified woman and asked Annamalai to go back to India.
"Doesn’t matter how many languages you speak. Still not Canadian. People have had enough," one such user said.
"She watched her country turn into a s**t hole over the course of 10 years. I understand her anger," another added.
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