TORONTO -- One person has been charged after a TTC subway train was vandalized with racist graffiti on Friday.
Dionne Callaghan told CP24 on Saturday that a woman scribbled a racist message on the train and pointed at her.
"I had my earbuds in, and I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I could see that she was saying the N-word, so I just sort of looked away from her," she told CP24. "She pointed at me, she scribbled a message and then she gave her child the marker back."
Callaghan was on her way home from her work at a hospital when the incident.
Before the woman left the train, Callaghan said the woman pointed at her again and pointed at the racist message.
She said she was in a state of disbelief following the incident, which she described as an "overt act of racism."
Callaghan was disappointed that nobody on the train stood up for her.
"I believe that silence is violence, and if I had seen this act being directed at somebody else, I would have stepped in," she said. "I think as people, we need to stand up and take notice and make people aware that this is not OK behaviour."
On Saturday, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said Callaghan and another person reported the incident to the transit agency.
The train was immediately taken out of service.
"No one should ever be subjected to that anywhere, let alone on public transit," Green said. "We've reached out to Dionne and offered our apologies that she was subjected to that and, of course, to anyone else who saw that graffiti."
Police confirmed on Sunday that one person has been charged with mischief and harassment.
The name of the person is not being released for the person's safety, police said, adding that the incident is was treated as a hate crime but does not meet the criteria of one as is defined in the Criminal Code of Canada.
- with files from Chris Fox
