Montreal authorities are investigating a now-viral video that shows a white man verbally harassing an Arabic-speaking woman and her child.
The incident occurred in Ahuntsic-Cartierville on Tuesday afternoon, as the woman was walking her two-year-old daughter home from daycare. Cell phone footage shows the man uttering lewd and racist statements to the mother in French, as the child is heard crying the background. The victim, who asked not to be identified for safety concerns, told the CBC she believes the man began harassing them because he had heard her speaking Arabic.
"I told him, 'The language I speak doesn't concern you,'" the woman told the outlet.
The situation reportedly escalated after another woman who worked at the daycare intervened and began recording.
Moments later, the man was heard using racist slurs and asking the child if he could have sex with her mother.
The woman told the CBC that her child has not been able to sleep since the incident.
"She doesn't quite understand the words that were said, but she knows someone was threatening her and her mother," she told the CBC.
The victim said she is convinced the man was emboldened by the recent passage of Quebec's religious symbols law, which prohibits public teachers, police officers, and other authority figures from wearing religious symbols at the work place. The CBC notes that the woman does not wear a religious symbol.
On Thursday, Montreal police confirmed they have identified the man in the video and were investigating the incident.
