Woman arrested after going on racist rant in front of Toronto City Hall
A woman who was filmed hurling racist and homophobic slurs outside Toronto’s City Hall has been arrested.
Video posted to Reddit shows the woman holding a “Vote Andrew Scheer” sign and yelling profanities at a man filming her next to the “Toronto” sign at Nathan Phillips Square.
When he tells her “I can’t believe you’re real,” she marches up and spits at him, while continuing to yell offensive remarks and threatening to fight him.
“You spit on my country. Go back home you f—ing n—er,” she is heard saying.
Warning: Video contains offensive language
Police were called to the scene around noon on Monday and a woman was arrested. Global News reports that Talya Davidson, 28, was charged with assault and assaulting peace officers. She was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning.
Farhan Rana, the man filming the video, told the outlet that he came across the woman while on his lunch break.
“I haven’t seen anything like this before. I haven’t even heard of it. You see of it online here and there and it seems like random acts,” he said. “But when it happens to you, you see it’s so real. Even when it happened … I was kind of amused by how ridiculous the whole thing was. But then when she came over and she assaulted me, I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s happening? Where am I?’ I felt unsafe and all of a sudden it seemed kind of unsafe. There was so much anger, so much hostility. It was scary.”
Scheer wrote on Twitter Monday, saying that he didn’t know the woman and condemned her actions.
I don’t know who this woman is, but there is no place in our party or our country for her hateful language. I condemn her behaviour and racist comments. https://t.co/khSV7hAWO4
— Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) August 12, 2019
Others took to social media to express their shock.
This chick in Nathan Phillips square is yelling the N word and was spitting on minorities and assaulting people. While holding a "Vote Andrew Sheer" sign. Wow... #OnlyInAmericaEh? pic.twitter.com/w2KvLID7Tc
— Sheldon Jones (@sheldonjones83) August 12, 2019
Shes crazy. I don’t believe this. Andrew sheer slammed her right away. He does not condone this behaviour. Glad she was arrested and charged.
— crystal (@crystal23585834) August 13, 2019
The incident has also quickly inspired theories that the whole thing was staged.
Looking at these photos of Talya Davidson, the woman arrested for the racist rant & attack on an officer yesterday sure has me thinking.
Is it possible that she’s just a left wing activist who staged a very bad hoax to try & make @AndrewScheer look bad? Certainly looks that way. pic.twitter.com/UpYBBwchQx— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) August 13, 2019
Not overlooking the taural excrement spewing from this hate muppet, but a hand made sign makes me think that this has been staged...either a Liberal supporter trying to hurt Scheer, a #CPC supporter trying to damage Trudeau’s character, or a mentally unfit person. #cdnpoli
— Tim Murphy 🇨🇦 🏳️🌈 👨🚒🍪 (@grouchdiver) August 13, 2019
Let me help you BlogTo with your headline. “Whack job leftist liberal/socialist arrested for spitting on her accomplice camera man and spewing racist comments in a lame attempt to smear Andrew Sheer”. There, that’s better! You should also post an apology for promoting fake news!
— Raymond Lee (@RayLee143949) August 13, 2019
This looks staged. What's with the "vote Andrew Sheer" sign? Who the hell walks around downtown with that? https://t.co/M8rp6Jo8MM
— Whitey D (@sherwoodthecat) August 13, 2019