Woman’s TTC Experience Reminds Us How Lucky We Are to Live in Canada

After all the backwards racist rhetoric in the wake of recent events south of the border, one Toronto resident wants to remind us all how great Canada really is.

As CBC reports, Salma Hamidi, an Iranian immigrant who has lived in Canada for 12 years, had a TTC experience that demonstrated the true spirit of what it means to be Canadian.

Hamidi took to Facebook to describe how strangers from varying ages and backgrounds came together on the TTC early one morning to help a distressed man who was running late for a job interview.

While riding the TTC last week, Hamidi said that a Latino man threw down his skates and sat down in front of her. He held his head, repeatedly saying, “Oh God.”

It didn’t take long for fellow passengers to see if he was okay.

“The Russian guy sitting beside him asked if everything was OK in a pretty heavy accent,” Hamidi said in the Facebook post. “He said he has a horrible headache and is running late for an interview.”

When Hamidi offered him an Advil, the man thanked her but said he had nothing to take it with. Luckily, a fellow kindhearted passenger did.

“The Middle Eastern woman sitting beside me wearing [a] hijab, took out a juice box from her kid’s backpack and gave it to him, telling him that if he takes it now he’ll feel better by the time he gets to the interview,” she added.

The man also revealed that he was nervous.

An employer herself, Hamidi offered him a little pep talk and a few words of wisdom, recommending that he not enter the interview with excuses for his tardiness, but rather simply say that he is late and apologize.

TTC Experience

The other riders also chimed in with their suggestions and advice.

“The Russian told him to walk in confidently and to tie his hair back if he [could],” she said. “A Chinese teenager sitting on his other side handed him a hair tie saying she has a million of them.”

Hamidi said that the Muslim woman told him to smile a lot as people are more willing to trust you if you smile. When the man got to his station, the kind strangers all wished him good luck in his interview.

“Now if THIS isn’t the ultimate Canadian experience short of a beaver walking into a bar holding a jar of maple syrup, I don’t know what is!” wrote Hamidi.

Her post has since gone viral. It’s definitely a refreshing contrast from the disheartening headlines that have dominated news feeds as of late (not to mention, something positive regarding the often maddening TTC experience).

“I guess we’re all very grateful that we live here,” Hamidi told CBC. “More so than ever we all realize it and everybody was saying how they are in love with Canada and the culture.”

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