For the sake of your data analysis, I am an 18 year old female. Asian to Chinese parents, born and raised here with English as my first language.
I didn’t know if my story would be taken seriously until a different girl came forward with a similar experience. I’m sorry I was silent until now. I didn’t know where to report what happened to me. I was afraid to call and have to speak to someone and relive what happened. I’m not good at telling this sort of thing over the phone. I never reported it until now, and I don’t know if the contact page for Translink counts.
It happened during October 2013, at around 6:40pm or so. I don’t remember the exact day it happened. I don’t like to remember. I got on the 321 White Rock Center at Surrey Central and it was already very dark outside. I saw a man who I thought looked Caucasian, skinny, in worn out brown clothing with a small bag and a skateboard. He had a lot of stubble and was wearing a toque, but I could tell from his eyebrows he had dark hair. I guessed he was in his late twenties to forties. He did not sit next to me, at the back of the bus. I sat in the window seat across the back exit doors. Nothing happened until we started to go down King George Highway into White Rock. The bus had less than 10 people. He moved to the seat next to me, blocking my way out. I thought that maybe his stop was coming up, but I was still freaked out that he sat next to me when the bus was so empty. He propped his bag where his feet should be, and put his skateboard to his right, boxing the both of us in the seats. I prayed he was only trying to be comfortable, but he started to spread his legs out more and angled his body more in my direction, like he was waiting for me to look at him. He kept rubbing his thigh against mine, but I kept looking ahead, terrified of him but too afraid to do anything. He got more persistent and started to thrust his lower body at me, and I just started to cry. The surrey park and ride was coming up so I knew I just had to move to the driver, so I pulled the string to have an excuse to get out of the seat. When we stopped we got up, but he opened the back door, stepped out and turned around like he was waiting for me. I sat back down and the driver pulled out and off. This man stared at me almost in disbelief and I was too upset to say anything to my driver.
What happened to me has made me terrified on any public transit. I’m hyper aware and terrified when a man I don’t know sits next to me. Any movement they make I am conscious of, and I focus in on the fact that we are so close and I am so vulnerable. Rewriting and reliving this is incredibly difficult for me, but what happened to me wasn’t my fault, and I no longer want to be silent.
Harassment on Translink 