'Ultimate Canadian experience': Subway passengers help man late for job interview

CTV News Channel: Toronto Subway kindness Salma Hamidi, a commuter on a Toronto subway train, explains how a random act of kindness made her realize how happy she is to be Canadian.

While the world worried that Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States would herald a resurgence of racist and sexist vitriol, one Toronto subway rider says the outburst of kindness she witnessed during her morning commute should restore your faith in humanity.

Salma Hamidi was riding the Toronto subway on Nov. 11, when she saw a man board the train, appearing visibly upset.

“I was on the subway and it was in the morning. Nobody is a morning person,” she told CTV News Channel on Thursday. “And this Latino guy walked on the subway.”

According to Hamidi, he sat down, holding his head, saying “OH GOD.”

After a few minutes, a man with what Hamidi said was a “heavy Russian accent” asked if he was okay, to which he replied that he had a horrible headache and was running late for a job interview.

Hamidi offered him Advil, which he graciously accepted, but would wait to take later, since he didn’t have any water.

That’s when a lady wearing a hijab piped up, offering him her child’s juice box.

“The kid was not impressed,” Hamidi said.

The man started thanking everyone for helping him out and told them he was nervous for his interview as he hasn’t had a job for a while. The man with the Russian accent told him to “walk in confidently” and “do something about that hair”.

It was then that someone Hamidi described as “an Asian teenager” offered the man her hair tie.

Passengers offered him advice until the train arrived at his stop, where they wished him luck and he went on his way.

Writing about it on Facebook, Hamidi called it the “ultimate Canadian experience.”

“All the sitcoms make fun of us because we’re too nice. So this was the epitome of that. Of every one being too nice, together, at the same moment,” she said

“It was so organic and casual.[…] And the fact that we were all first, second-generation immigrants just had some sort of significance to me.”

Hamidi still doesn’t know if the man got the job. She’s waiting for him to reach out and update her.