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TORONTO — Samira Warsame said she felt like an animal on election day when she was working at a Toronto polling station and her supervisors told her to “be quiet” after a voter compared the niqab to a gorilla mask.

When Warsame, who was wearing a hijab, not a niqab, tried to defend Islam, her Elections Canada supervisor and another woman accused her of being partisan. She says she was silenced.

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“They took my voice away from me,” a crying Warsame said. “It wasn’t just me he was attacking, it was the whole Muslim community.”

The 21-year-old, who worked as an Elections Canada registration officer, said she was the victim of an Islamophobic attack her employer did nothing to prevent.

“Since this was such a huge debate, they should have had some sort of security,” she said. “They need to protect the people that need to be protected.”

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Warsame said she was working a 12-hour shift Monday and by 1:45 p.m. had helped hundreds of voters at St. Andrew’s Public School in the Scarborough Centre riding.