WARNING: This video attached to this story has language that some may find offensive
Transit police in Vancouver are investigating after footage emerged of a racist confrontation on board a public bus in the city.
The video, which on Tuesday morning had been viewed nearly 40,000 times on YouTube, shows a woman in pink cursing and complaining to an older woman who was speaking a language other than English.
"Go back to your country," the woman in pink says in the video.
It isn’t clear what caused the argument, but at one point the woman in pink says the older woman was talking about other passengers on the bus.
The person recording the video, later identified as Randy Keeping, defends the older woman, saying anyone has the right to speak any language in Canada.
Keeping told CTV Vancouver the incident happened Saturday evening in East Vancouver and had already escalated by the time he got on the bus. When the argument turned racial, he began recording.
"I've seen it before and this time I got fed up with it," he said. "I didn't want to be that bystander anymore who doesn’t say anything."
Sgt. Clint Hampton, spokesperson for the Vancouver Transit Police, confirmed officers are investigating the incident.
“The investigating members are going to make a determination whether or not a criminal element is there,” he said. “If that’s the case, then (we would) be looking at a criminal charge, if not, then it would be a stern talking to from our officers.”
Hampton said the woman in the video has already spoken with investigators and plans to release a statement, while officers still hope to speak with Keeping, the older woman and any other witnesses.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Sarah Macdonald
