Paladin Security guard Anmol Singh stands with Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Image Credit: TWITTER/Paladin Security
July 16, 2021 - 7:00 AM
A Kelowna security guard who has been praised for his actions in handling a racist confrontation is grateful to see so much support.
A video published by iNFOnews.ca earlier this week showing Paladin Security guard Anmol Singh trying to keep the peace as protestor Bruce Orydzuk yelled racist remarks at the Trinity Church vaccination site has gained international attention, reaching friends as far away as India through social media, Singh said.
READ MORE: Kelowna security guard who dealt with racist tirade ‘will be recognized’
“You are not a Canadian, you are disgusting,” Orydzuk told him. “Go back to your country, you’re not a Canadian, beat it, you’re disgusting. You don’t know Canadian laws.”
The video has been shared around by Canadian Sikh communities, politicians including B.C.’s Premier John Horgan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and even singer Jann Arden.
"I did a night shift yesterday actually, I couldn’t sleep in the morning. There were probably more than 100 phone calls that I received and a lot of Instagram messages I have, it’s been too much,” Singh said.
He said the event has snowballed from a protestor at a COVID-19 vaccination site, to being “connected to the culture that a Sikh person is being harassed.”
READ MORE: Protestor unleashes racist tirade at Kelowna vaccination clinic security guard
As a security guard and as a human, it’s his job to protect people at the vaccination clinic, he said.
“At the end of the day, people are supporting me, which is the best thing, which is the thing I really like.”
Singh has dreams to be a police officer and considers this event to be training to help him deal with difficult situations.
Having been a security guard mostly at the Trinity Church site for the last two months and having lived in Kelowna for the last four years, he said these types of incidents are few and far between.
“People have been really nice and this is what I like about Canada, people are really supportive,” he said. “One person can’t do anything to me. One person, if he says anything to me, I’m not going to feel bad about it because he might be having a bad day or he might be just like that.”
But the incident still upset him and he wanted to speak out to tell the public what happened.
Tuesday’s incident was the first time he had a confrontation with the protestors, Singh said.
The Kelowna RCMP is currently conducting an investigation to see if the comments made are considered a hate crime.
“We are very proud of the officer and he handles himself incredibly professionally under extreme circumstances and we’ll be recognizing that,” said Jason Davis, branch manager in the South Okanagan with Paladin Security.
These types of incidents are not uncommon, he said, but couldn't comment further at the time.
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