Newfoundland physician calls out racism in small community, vows to counter it

globalnews.ca:

In a Facebook post in early November, Dr. Gerges Ambarak wrote passionately about what he felt was a racially motivated attack on the teen at her school in Lewisporte.“This is only racism and discrimination which no one of you can tolerate or accept,” he wrote.

“Two years now and we are suffering from this discrimination.”In an interview with Global News, Ambarak says his daughter had been called names and bullied at her school over several years but school officials did nothing to stop it. Then on Nov.

9, he was called to Lewisporte Intermediate School after an altercation occurred.“She was crying and she had some superficial injuries to her face,” he says.The same day, he says he received this text from an unknown number threatening harm, addressing him as “Mr. Black.”Newfoundland RCMP confirm officers charged a youth with assault in connection with the incident at the school.Ambarak and his wife, Dr.

Heba Gergis, are both physicians in the town, and in his online post, the native Egyptian said he was considering moving his family away.“We sacrificed the work-life balance to help you,” his post says. “We worked the weekends to overcome the waiting list.”He tells Global News he wrote the post to gauge community reaction.“I tried to know, what is the reaction of the public, does the public have the same point of view, that we are Black, we are immigrant, we are not supposed to be here?” he explains.His words online brought forth a flood of support from throughout the community and the province.