Sikh man's turban ripped off in racist attack in Canada

A Sikh man in Canada was dragged and his turban ripped by two white men who shouted racial slurs and threatened him with a knife in an apparent racist attack, according to media reports.

The man was attacked by two white men, both in their 20s, near Westgate Shopping Centre on Friday night, CBC news reported.

Apart from robbing him and tearing the turban off his head, the two threatened him with a knife. They also hurled racial slurs at him, the report said yesterday.

Two suspects, described as white men by police, approached the victim at 11:25 p.m. while he waited for a bus. They asked the man about his ethnicity and spoke about cutting his beard and hair, police said.

"He was asked specifically about his ethnicity and then there were some racial slurs that came along with that," said Staff Sergent Mike Haarbosch of the Ottawa police.

"They also asked him whether he'd ever cut his hair or his beard, so, that's pretty specific, so at a minimum we're suggesting at this point that there were some racial overtones to this."
"We have some information they may have been drinking, so this could certainly be a one-off event committed by a couple of guys that were acting stupidly and disgustingly, but that's part of the investigation that's going on."