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An Ottawa mother who confronted a young man berating and harassing a woman on an OC Transpo bus after Bluesfest says she wishes more people would stand up to such behaviour.

“A silent bystander when someone is being harmed shows people that that behaviour is appropriate,” Melissa Gervais said in a text exchange with this newspaper.

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“People have this assumption that, if you speak up, you’re a rat or a snitch. When someone is being targeted and harmed in some manner, standing up for them and alerting the appropriate people isn’t ratting or snitching, it’s doing your duty as a human being to help.”

Gervais was on her way home around 11 p.m. on July 10 from Bluesfest, where she volunteers in a beer tent, when she saw the man harassing a young woman on the eastbound No. 95 bus.

The man, who appeared to be in his early to mid-20s, was swearing as he crudely propositioned the young woman.

“He was telling her he was going to bring her home and f— her,” Gervais wrote in a public Facebook post. “She said she had a bf [boyfriend]. He told her to call her bf and tell him he wasn’t getting her p—- tonight and he was going to f— him up.”