Waterloo woman charged as police investigate alleged hate-motivated altercation at Kitchener DriveTest centre
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Waterloo regional police have arrested a 27-year-old Waterloo woman as part of an investigation into an alleged┬аhate-motivated altercation at a DriveTest Centre in Kitchener, Ont., on Wednesday.┬а
Police said the incident happened at approximately 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. One of the people involved was Mifrah Abid, who co-ordinates the┬аTogether Against Islamophobia program for the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W.
A video posted to Abid’s Twitter feed showed Abid┬аas she┬аconfronted┬аthe woman. Abid says the woman made a racial slur, something the woman denies in the video.
“We are all waiting in this line, and everybody heard you here making a racist comment about brown people,” Abid said in the video. “It’s not nice.”
Shortly after, the woman is seen on the video lunging toward Abid, grabbing Abid’s┬аphone and throwing it at her. A second video taken by a bystander also shows the altercation taking place. Both videos have been circulated on social media.
WATCH | A video of the altercation was posted to Twitter. It contains offensive language and shows an assault:
I started recording when she began getting exceedingly aggressive & menacing against me…./2 <a href=”https://t.co/NouZYFCEaY”>pic.twitter.com/NouZYFCEaY</a>
—@AcrossHerTable
The coalition issued a statement saying members are “hurt and shocked” by the altercation.
“The entire organization stands with Mifrah as she takes action to report the alleged hate-motivated assault to the police. We are ready to support Mifrah┬аwith our counselling recourses as well,” the coalition said.
On her own Twitter feed, Abid said she was in a “state of shock” after the altercation.
“This is literally what we do at the [coalition]. We help victims report hate and get supports. I was shaking all over,” Abid tweeted. “We literally train people on how to be active bystanders and how to counter racism and yet, here I was.┬аI was caught completely off guard when I was hit by this woman.”
Police have charged a┬аWaterloo woman with assault, assault with a weapon and theft under $5,000. The woman was held for a bail hearing, police said in a release.
‘Not acceptable anytime, anywhere’
Local politicians reacted to the videos online.
Kitchener Mayor┬аBerry Vrbanovic┬аsaid the video “is very upsetting.”
“This type of assault is not acceptable anytime, anywhere,” Vrbanovic┬аtweeted, saying he stands with Coalition of Muslim Women.
“Our entire community in speaking out against all hatred and racism in our region and everywhere,” he said.
Waterloo┬аMPP Catherine Fife also called the altercation “very upsetting,” and asked Abid to reach out to her office if she needed support.
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie tweeted Abid is┬а“very brave and powerful to call out such vile discrimination against you and others that were in that room.”
Police are asking anyone┬аwho witnessed the┬аaltercation, or who has information about the case,┬аto call┬а519-570-9777.┬аOfficers with┬аthe┬аWaterloo Regional Police Service’s equity, diversity and inclusion unit and general investigations unit are┬аinvestigating.
