Canadian comedian alleges Toronto police officer made racist comments

A trip to watch the Blue Jays play for the first time ever on Saturday turned sour for a Canadian actor who said he witnessed racism at the intersection of Lakeshore and Rees streets.

Andrew Phung, who has a role on the CBC sitcom ‘Kim’s Convenience’, claims a family was told to “go back to your country.” Phung says it wasn’t just what was said that shocked him but by who said it.

“A family, people of colour, were in the car trying to figure out how to get through the intersection and a police officer comes out and starts yelling at them, move through,” Phung said. “On his way back he said, ‘if you don’t know how to drive go back to your country’ and I stopped right there and said ‘woah,’ as big as I could, and said not cool.”

The comedian said it happened around 3:30 p.m. when he was making his way to the game with his family, including his two young kids. Phung said he didn’t speak with the family that was passing through the busy intersection, but saw the disappointment on their faces.

“I remember it vividly, it was an SUV and it looked like there was a mother and father and a kid in the back,” he recalled. “Dad was driving, just trying to figure it out, and the truth is this intersection is very confusing. It’s so sad that we now yell at someone to go back to their country when they’re literally trying to get through the intersection on a busy day.”

Seconds after Phung claims the police officer uttered the disturbing phrase, he said two men passing beside him agreed in unison, stating, “If you can’t drive, go back to your country.”

“When police officers show that type of behaviour, you enable people like this to do that and to behave like that,” he said. “In this culture and in this day and age right now, that’s not right. I assume by this family being down here on a hot day, they’re going to a Jays game, they’re going to the island, they want a good life and want just want to get through this intersection.”

Phung, who splits his time between Calgary and Toronto, said he followed the two men and confronted them about what they said, talking about the many contributions immigrants make to one of the most diverse cities in the world.

“I talked about how I love immigrants so much and that I love different types of food,” he said. “I said, I didn’t know the ability to drive was a perquisite on citizenship in this country. It just seems odd to me that’s where their minds have gone and they feel like they’re allowed to do that.”

The father of two said he also took photos of the police officer, and took to twitter to share his experiences, though he decided not to post the officer’s picture on the social media site.

“I was so mad and in the moment walking to the game, I thought this needs to get out and I wanted people to see it because this stuff does exist and we can call it out,” he said. “I didn’t want to point out the police officer directly and I didn’t want to share his image.”

CityNews reached out to 52 Division and explained Phung’s claims. The sergeant said this was the first time they’d heard of this incident.

“If in fact that’s true, I’d be very disappointed that any officer would say that to a member of the public,” said Sgt. Mark Hayward. “I personally don’t condone that kind of action, and I can speak for the Toronto Police Service in saying that’s not acceptable behaviour if that took place.”

CityNews also called and emailed the Toronto Police Service, who at that time was not aware of Phung’s claims, saying more details were needed.

“We are trying to get as much information as possible, so that we can investigate what happened,” Mark Pugash said in a statement.

Following this media inquiry, Toronto Police also reached out to the actor via Twitter asking for more details. Phung responded, tweeting he had emailed details along with the photos he took. The police force confirmed receipt of the email and said it’s been forwarded for an investigation.

While interviewing Phung at the intersection, a uniformed police officer was also in the vicinity. CityNews asked him if he was aware of the comedian’s claims, and the police officer said he was not.

Phung, who is a child of immigrants, said he wanted to stand up for the family who was driving through the intersection, adding that if he had an opportunity to speak with them, he would apologize for what transpired.

“It’s important for any of us to speak out and point out, not cool, not around us, not here, not now,” he said. “And the more we sit and let it happen, the worse it becomes. Because those two dudes, what if they do it more and more? They saw a cop do it.”

Within hours, Phung’s social media posts had been liked and shared hundreds of times.

“I so respect what police officers do, the men, women and people of colour who work in this industry do such hard work protecting our communities,” he said. “I always want to give them the benefit of the doubt to hear their side of the story on the stuff that happens. In this situation I saw the side of the story, I saw all of it.”