WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Moshiur Samid says he usually likes to keep to himself and is a private, introverted person.

The international student says he never thought he’d be talking to a journalist about the racism he’s experienced in Regina.

The 22-year-old, who moved to Canada from Bangladesh to study physics at the University of Regina in 2022, says he was shocked when four men in a car started aggressively yelling racist and threatening comments at him and two of his friends, and then threw coffee at him.

The incident happened as the three were walking home from a 7-Eleven on Victoria Avenue, not far from downtown, around 1 a.m. on Dec. 23. They tried to ignore the people in the car, who first asked if they had drugs and then offered to sell them some, said Samid.

“At first [we] denied — ‘We don’t want any drugs. We also are not selling drugs,'” he said.

Then, “they called us f–king Indians,” saying “get the f–k out of our country. Which Tim Hortons do you work?'” he said.

One of the men said, “I’ll shoot you,” said Samid.

Shariar Sabith says he was angry after the incident. ‘Sometimes I feel like crying, and sometimes don’t feel like doing anything. Like, I don’t know what to do,’ he said. (Submitted by Shariar Sabith)

The four men drove back to him and his friends four times, he said, and the third time, the man in the passenger seat threw coffee at him.

“They start calling us names again. I say, ‘Bro, I’m not even Indian.…’ Then he threw a coffee cup at me. It was full of cold coffee, and he just threw it at my face. And I was like, what just happened?” he said.

“My friends were calming me, and I was still walking. I didn’t stop … because I didn’t know what to feel at that moment,” said Samid. “I was kind of zoned out.”

Canada has always been welcoming, he said, but he’s seen a shift, both online and beyond, in the last few months.

Ignoring hate online is one thing, but after being attacked, threatened and verbally assaulted in person, Samid says he felt he had to speak up, because he doesn’t want other newcomers to face what he and his friends did.

The incident left Shariar Sabith, one of Samid’s friends, badly shaken.

“For two days I didn’t feel very well.… I was very angry,” said Sabith, 22, who is also a physics student at the U of R.

“Every day, I talk with my parents, but for two days I didn’t talk with them. And sometimes I feel like crying, and sometimes don’t feel like doing anything. Like, I don’t know what to do,” he said.

“They said they will shoot us.… We didn’t do anything wrong. So why do they tell us that?”

Samid and Sabith are both studying physics at the University of Regina. Samid says Canada has always been welcoming, but he’s seen a shift, both online and beyond, in the last few months. (Submitted by Moshiur Samid)

He said while he felt like he “can’t do anything,” he did take note of the car’s licence plate.

The three friends made a police report once they got home, and officers came and got information from them.

The Regina Police Service said in an email to CBC they are investigating the incident.

Not an isolated incident: prof

Reena Kukreja, an associate professor at Queen’s University in Ontario, says this isn’t an isolated incident.

She’s been researching the normalization of hateful rhetoric and how it’s manifesting in abuse in day-to-day interactions, focusing on South Asian men in Canada.

Kukreja says she’s seeing a rise in everyday hate against racialized migrants, including things like “delivery guys facing a lot of hate, especially when doing food delivery, having doors slammed into their faces. That’s very common, and increasingly so,” Kukreja said.

She said the incidents come against the backdrop of anti-immigrant rhetoric that has been elevated by political leaders, and online comments presenting racialized immigrants as the root cause of Canada’s problems.

“Whether it’s the housing crisis that stems way back, to health care to unemployment, all of these being placed at the doorstep of these migrants is what I see,” she said.

What Samid and his friends experienced is “symptomatic of a larger crisis that will unfold and will take, I feel, more tragic turns,” said Kukreja.

She also hopes police and the larger community do something about the incident in a timely manner.

“This was such an overt articulation of hate. And if this wasn’t attended to in a timely manner, what would happen to other incidents? And so will we wait for another shooting like the Quebec mosque or the running over of people?” she said.

Samid and Sabith say they’re disappointed the police haven’t done more.

They say they haven’t heard anything more since they made their report, even though they gave a licence plate, and the area where the incident happened would likely have had several security cameras that could have captured the incident.

“I just want the police to just investigate that case properly, and find out who did this to us,” said Samid. “Even if … [the men in the car] feel sorry and they said they will never do that again with anyone, I’m happy.”