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When no one would help a girl being attacked, a rugby player stepped up
By Ian Cameron
A 21-year-old rugby player is being hailed a hero after he intervened where others wouldn’t – saving a Muslim teenager from a racist attack on a Vancouver train this week.
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Canadian Transit police have since arrested a man after he allegedly assaulted 17-year-old Noor Fadel, 17, because she was wearing a hijab.
The suspect is alleged to have launched a foul mouth tirade in front of a pack train of commuters, yet no one intervened until the attack escalated into a physical assault, at which point Vancouver Rugby Club player Jake Taylor stepped in.
Fadel recounted the tale on the her Facebook page, which duly went viral.
“After work I missed my last bus back home so I had to take a train… On the Canada line at around 9:57 pm I got on a sat a few seats away from a man on the train with a lot of people on.
“This man got up and started to swear at me, calling me a whore and a slut telling me he will kill me and all Muslims in a mix of Arabic and some other language I wasn’t understanding.”
“He raised his hand and began saying he was going to kill me. I wanted to film him but I was afraid he was going to hit me
He was using horrific words as he was aggressively making actions when he tried to grab my head and shove it to his crotch.”
The attacker then slapped her across her face, at which point the 6’3, 90kg Taylor decided to put pay to the violent assault.
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“And everyone watched as he did so. Everyone stayed seated and did not utter a word but one man. One guy just like me on his way home from work got up and pushed the guy away and stayed in front of me until the man got off at Vancouver city centre.
“The guy with me then got off at Yale town and stayed with me the entire time when police and paramedics arrived. Out of a whole train filled with people. One person got up and did something and said something.”
“Due to this kind stranger who protected me I was able to sneak a picture or two of the man who attacked me before he got off the train.”
“Thank you to Jake Taylor for being the one person, once a stranger now a dear friend who stood up for me no matter for my appearance.”
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Speaking to the Nelson Daily, the hero’s former rugby coach Michael Joyce said of Taylor. “Jake has a big heart. He has Tourette’s and understands what it is like to be marginalized and picked on.”
“Jake was teased all of his life, but playing rugby, we could see his confidence grow,” Joyce told the paper. “The guys on the team just loved him.”
https://www.facebook.com/noorfadel8/posts/727523377440699
