Edmonton man charged with assault over racist liquor store rant

Aug 19 2020, 9:54 pm

A man who went on a racist tirade in an Edmonton liquor store earlier this month is now facing an assault charge, according to police.

Terry Samsoniuk, 61, has been charged with one count of assault and another count of causing a disturbance, an Edmonton Police Service spokesperson told Daily Hive Wednesday.

Samsoniuk entered Olympia Liquor on August 2 not wearing mask — breaking the city bylaw stating face coverings are required in all indoor public spaces.

“The moment he entered the store he started yelling, I didn’t even ask him, I was about to ask him, but he didn’t let me ask anything, he just started yelling about the mask thing, saying ‘I’m not going to buy anything if I have to wear it,’” Navdeep Singh, the worker involved in the incident told Daily Hive.

Samsoniuk proceeded to yell at Singh and at another Asian customer in an incident that was captured on video and shared by CTV News Edmonton. His rant included accusations that Singh and the other customer were “disrespecting Canada” and that Singh’s beard looked “stupid.”

“That is really sacred to me because of my religion, so that was crossing a line,” Singh said.

 

Megan DevlinMegan Devlin

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