Woman speaks out after racist incident on TDSB property

A Toronto woman is speaking out after a racist incident she says she experienced over the weekend.

Justine Abigail Yu says she was reading a book in a North York park when a white woman accused her of trespassing on private property, and threatened to call the police, before hurling anti-Asian remarks at her.

The incident reportedly happened Saturday around 2:30 pm at Hollywood Public School near Bayview and Sheppard.

Yu, who is the founder and editor of Living Hyphen Magazine, took to social media to document the incident shortly after.

“She yelled at me saying there are signs all over the space, and can’t I read? ‘Maybe you don’t speak English, go back to China where you’re from’,” Yu recounted in an interview with CityNews.

Yu says that’s when she started recording the woman, who can be seen on video pacing up and down the sidewalk, and at one point in the recording appears to say “all Chinese people should go to jail.”

“I was shocked, no one ever said that to me before,” says Yu of the incident. “I was really rattled by the experience.”

Yu says she didn’t report the incident to police, but did contact the Ontario College of Teachers, the Toronto District School Board, and the Toronto Catholic School board after the woman claimed she was a teacher. She’s hoping someone will be able to identify her.

“If she is a teacher, if she is an educator, I want her to be held accountable for her actions,” says Yu. “It is mortifying to think about her being in a classroom, holding a position of power to educate future minds, creating an unsafe space for Black, Indigenous, People of Colour.”

TDSB spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz called the incident “disturbing”, saying the board is working to determine if the woman is in fact a teacher in their board.

Schwartz-Maltz also clarified, “school property is indeed private property, but the Board allows the public to come onto the property during non-school hours for responsible community enjoyment,” saying Yu was within her right to use the park on a weekend during the summer.