UPDATE:
Travis Milford, a 29-year-old Estevan male has been charged with causing a disturbance in connection with this incident. The file will be forwarded to the Crown Prosecutions Office for their opinion on any other charges that may be laid as a result of this incident.
Milford has been released with conditions not to associate or communicate with the victims, and will appear in court on Jan. 18, 2016, to answer to the charge.
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A sign of pure racism raised its ugly head on Saturday night in the Energy City. The event first shocked and then disappointed a couple of local residents who became the victims of racial taunts and action.
Ashwani Kapoor and his girlfriend Neha Mugal were driving home around 10:30 after spending the day visiting friends in Regina, when they were forced to stop near the Sixth Street and 13th Avenue intersection, since a train was occupying the rail crossing.
A large cherry red truck was stopped beside them on the left side. A backseat passenger in the truck motioned to the East Indian couple.
“He was waving at us and was saying something. Initially we thought he wanted to tell us something was wrong with our car; so I rolled down my car window,” said Kapoor.
That’s when the harassment started.
“He gave us the middle finger and then said we should ‘get a real car, you East Indian piece of sh .. I can crush you with my truck.’”
Kapoor said he immediately rolled his car window back up and started a video recording.
At that point the back seat passenger in the truck stopped talking, but made faces that indicated he really didn’t care. He then got out of the truck and tried to enter Kapoor’s vehicle, but by that time, the couple had locked the doors. The perpetrator then started knocking on Kapoor’s car window.
The couple said that from the man’s actions and speech, he appeared to be inebriated.
What was disappointing to Kapoor and Magul was the fact neither the female passenger sitting in the back seat with the foul-mouthed antagonist nor the driver, appeared to be interested in taking any kind of action to prevent the racist comments or his actions.
“The light turned green, they didn’t move their truck until my car was ahead of them. I expect that’s because they didn’t want us to see their licence plate,” said Kapoor. The angry man was still knocking on their window when the traffic lights changed, too.
While Kapoor drove to a service station where, he said, he knew there would be more people,Magul phoned police who met them a few minutes later at the service station and offered them an opportunity to make a statement at the police station, which they did. They showed the video of the tail end of the harassment incident to police, but don’t believe they’ll be able to do very much with it other than attempt to identify the individual who created the incident.
“We are heartbroken and discouraged,” said Kapoor who has been a resident in Estevan for three years and is employed at SRI Homes in human resources, while Magul works there in the sales and marketing department, a position she has held for a couple of years. Kapoor said his brother also lives in Estevan and is employed in the hospitality industry.
“I’ve been in Canada for six years … in Toronto for two and Regina for a year before coming to Estevan and this is the first time I’ve come up against outright racism like this,” said Kapoor. “I mean if a person is racist and doesn’t like somebody or something, isn’t it just right not to say anything?”
“It’s the first time I’ve heard that type of talk,” added Magul, who admitted to being more than a little frightened by the exchange, especially when the man got out of the truck and approached their car. They didn’t know if he was armed with anything either.
The incident was all over by 11 p.m. and they lost contact with the truck that had fallen in immediately behind them after they cleared the intersection and train tracks.
“After we locked the doors and windows, we could still hear him as he knocked on the window. We didn’t see him carrying anything though,” said Kapoor, who added they now, as a couple, really didn’t know what to think about an extended stay in Estevan.
“We really like it here. We like our work, we like the people we work with. We have a very understanding boss. Other people in this town are friendly. It’s the very first time I have seen and heard such things,” said Magul who added that she had contemplated a move to Toronto earlier, but had remained in Estevan, even though the multi-cultural lifestyle is limited. “I love this place. I like working here. I live only a few minutes from work. It’s nice, but I don’t know exactly what happened here,” she added with a wry smile. “Not all people are bad, but unfortunately the whole community ends up paying the consequences when something like this happens. It’s a shock to us. In a small town like this where everybody knows one another, it’s disappointing.”
Kapoor said his brother was also surprised at the sudden outburst of rednecked negativity since he hadn’t encountered any of it, at least not at this level, while meeting a lot of people where he works.
“I find most people in Estevan are cordial and friendly, so I don’t think we’re going to change anything, We’re just surprised at this outburst and the fact the other people in the truck didn’t say or do anything to try and stop him,” Kapoor said.
The couple added they felt it was proper to contact the Mercury, to offer their story in the hope that something positive can be learned from the incident.
