Monir Omerzai posted Facebook video of him and friends in Denny’s being racially abused and told to ‘go back to your fucking country’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Police in Canada are investigating a video that shows a woman unleashing a racist tirade at a group of customers at a Denny’s restaurant in southern Alberta, shouting at them to “go back to where you came from” and accusing them of not paying taxes.

Among those sitting at the table was Monir Omerzai, who said the incident had left him reeling. After being encouraged by friends, he posted a video of the confrontation this week.

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The footage, which quickly went viral on social media , shows the woman turning to the booth where Omerzai was sitting with friends and launching into a profanity-laced racist outburst.

“Shut your fucking mouth, then, ’cos you know what, you’re dealing with a Canadian woman right now, and I will leap across the table and punch you right in your fucking mouth.”

A man is heard responding, telling her: “You’re the one who started.”

The woman continues as those at the table try to interject: “You’re not dealing with one of your Syrian bitches right now,” she says. “You’re dealing with a Canadian woman and I’m not going to be talked down to by you.”

Towards the end of the video, she tells the group: “Speak English if you’re going to speak. It’s Canada.”

Omerzai, who moved to Canada 13 years ago from Afghanistan, said the incident upset him deeply.

He said he wasn’t quite sure what had sparked the confrontation. Omerzai had been out with three friends at the Denny’s in Lethbridge and all of them were speaking in their mother tongue of Dari when the woman began looking at them.

“We just said, ‘Is everything OK?’ or ‘Is there any problem?’ From there she started going off. We were laughing and talking in our own language, but obviously we were not saying anything about her,” Omerzai told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Soon after the woman was telling them “to go back to your fucking country” and that they weren’t Canadians.

“What’s going through my head is: why is there so much hate in her?” he said. “Why would she even say that, to go back to my country? We’re all immigrants here.”

The woman on the video, identified as Kelly Pocha from Cranbrook, British Columbia, admitted her comments were racist but said she was having an “off” day.

“If I could take it back, I would. But I can’t,” she told Lethbridge News Now. She insisted that the video offered a one-sided account of what had transpired.

She said she had been drinking that night. The men at the table behind her were staring at her and “talking in their own language”, leading her to believe they were making fun of her. The thought set her off, she said.

Police arrived at the scene soon after and asked both parties to leave the diner.

Pocha said she was upset that the video had gone viral, describing herself as a hardworking mother of three. “It is what it is. But I do apologise for what I said, because a lot of it is not me. I don’t normally say things like that.”

After the video emerged on Wednesday, the car dealership with Pocha worked said she had been fired, noting in a statement that they were “deeply concerned” about the content of the video.