‘Go Back To Your Country’ Is A Phrase Canadians Are All Too Familiar With

As Carolina Kaneda stepped out of her Toronto home to catch up with her mother and dog one July day, she noticed a woman trying to get their attention.

The woman became angry after discovering Kaneda’s mother only speaks Spanish and couldn’t understand what she was saying. She told them both to “Go back to your country.”

Kaneda snapped in frustration. “’This is my country,” she said.

She and her mother walked away, but incidents like this continue to sting, Kaneda said.

“It definitely wears you down,” the 32-year-old photographer told HuffPost Canada. Originally from Colombia, she moved to Canada a decade ago, and identifies as mixed race.

Kaneda said people are becoming more emboldened to openly insult people of color and other minorities, and she attributes it in part to the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who used the slur towards members of Congress, and has made similar, derogatory comments about immigrants and refugees.

“Racist people are everywhere, and they’re more loud about it,” Kaneda said.