Indo-Canadian women face racism at Vancouver bar

An Indo-Canadian woman has alleged that she and her friends faced racist slurs at a bar in the city of Vancouver in Western Canada.

Jas Dhillon and her friends -- all Indo-Canadians -- were celebrating her 26th birthday on October 19 at a bar in Gastown area when its manager allegedly screamed at them saying, "Surrey's that way!", the news portal Vancouver Desi reported.

Dhillon said the manager's comment was in reference to a Vancouver suburb with a large Indian population. "To have that happen in Vancouver, in our own hometown, we were just shocked," she said.

According to Dhillon, the manager approached her and said they will be kicked out of the bar if she did not go back to her table after they tried to move to a booth following a shortage of chair.

"That's ridiculous. To be honest, we don't think that kind of stuff still happens," Dhillon said. Dhillon shared her story on popular travel website, Trip Advisor, and also complained to the bar's parent company, Blueprint.

"Please accept my sincere apologies for the negative experience that you and your group of friends had at the Charles Bar. We have begun looking into this matter and will be taking action to ensure that our establishments continue to remain up to our standards," a company representative responding to Dhillon's e-mail.

Unhappy with the response, Dhillon said, "(The) email was just so generic."

"It's important for people to know that these kinds of things do happen, it happens all the time," said Roop Khangura, one of Dhillon's friend who was present at the party.