Canadian Woman Accused Of “Racism” After Witnessing Indians Defecating In “Poop Holes” On Ontario Beach

The Publica Team

• July 18, 2024

A Canadian woman in Ontario is facing accusations of “racism” after documenting her concerns about South Asians openly defecating in the sand at her local beach.

Last week, TikToker @itsnattylxnn2.0 posted a video discussing a number of incidents she had witnessed in her small Ontario home of Wasaga Beach. With a population of just 52,000 people, the idyllic community is situated on the Nottawasaga River, and is home to the world’s longest freshwater beach.

But while @itsnattylxnn2.0 is a permanent resident in the community, the town boasts a bustling tourist industry during the summer as people flock from out of town to enjoy the sandy shores. @itsnattylxnn2.0 says the problem emerged after she observed Indian families visiting the beach.

On July 7, the mother of three uploaded a video noting that she used to live at a property that backed onto the national park where the main beach area was located, and that she witnessed large Indian families digging holes in the sand to defecate in while visiting. After the holes were dug, tents were popped over the hole to act as a rudimentary outhouse.

“They did it off my back yard. There were three different families of maybe 25, 30 people that came for barbecues who would set up right on the fence of my back yard. I saw them digging the hole. I saw them placing a tent [over the hole]. When they left, there was poop,” @itsnattylxnn2.0 says in the video. “I have had to yell at people for shitting on the border of my property line. And yes, it was Indian families.”

Two days later, @itsnattylxnn2.0 posted a follow-up video responding to some comments she had received dismissing the open defecation as a cultural difference.

“We are not back home. We are in Canada. As a local, I refuse to let my kids dig in the sand on Beach One,” she said. In another video posted that day, @itsnattylxnn2.0 announced she was going to begin a series exposing those defecating on the beach.

As @itsnattylxnn2.0 continued her commentary on the issue, noting that many Canadians had reached out to her with similar stories.

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“I’m not a racist. I’ll never be racist. But what I am is a good person. Because you guys need to know what you are running into when you come to Wasaga Beach. And it’s not locals doing it. It is people from out of town. It is immigrants that think it is okay to dig a hole, pop a squat, and bury their poop where kids play in the sand,” she said.

As @itsnattylxnn2.0 continued her videos on the subject, more detractors began pouring into her comment section, accusing her of spreading racism against Indians.

Responding to @itsnattylxnn2.0, another creator, @Maryam, accused her of being a “colonizer” trying to impose her views of hygiene on other cultures. But @itsnattylxnn2.0 quickly dispelled that accusation, noting that she was of Indigenous Canadian heritage.

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@itsnattylxnn2.0 noted that some commenters, seemingly of Indian origin, had begun bullying and threatening her for her videos, with some even insulting her for being a single mother.

One Indian commenter claimed that he anticipated that @itsnattylxnn2.0 was going to falsify or “edit” videos to “fit her narrative.” But the issue of South Asians using beaches to defecate is not new and has a well-documented history.

In 2020, the Globe and Mail reported that tensions were beginning to rise in Ontario beach communities as locals expressed outrage at the massive uptick in public defecation happening on their shores. One community, St. Catharines, went so far as to vote to refuse beach access to anyone not from the immediate Niagara region.

While the Globe and Mail does not name the ethnicity of those suspected of public defecation, a cursory glance at message boards and subreddits dedicated to those communities all name South Asian immigrants as the perpetrators.

Open defecation is a known issue in India, and was so widespread that the United Nations launched a “poo in loo” campaign in 2013. The campaign featured an animated poop and catchy music encouraging Indians to “take their poo to the loo.”

As a result of the negative attention open defecation was causing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to build hundreds of millions of toilets in the country in an effort to quash open defecation once and for all. But while Modi declared India “open defecation free” in 2019, the practice is still widespread, with beaches being a particular hotspot.