Off-Duty Canadian Cop Harasses & Assaults an Asian Man

July 25, 2020

These are a series of events that cumulated into separate sporadic physical and verbal altercations throughout the month of July. Isabel Chuong best describes what happened to her boyfriend, Nathan, at the hands of off-duty CBSA officer Kent Kean in Vancouver, British Columbia.

These are Isabel Chuong’s words:

“EDIT: Thanks to everyone who has shared and spread this incident so far! A few things, people have been requesting I unmute the video of Kean chokeholding Nathan and I agree. That has been done. Second, PLEASE PLEASE read the post thoroughly before making judgements. Lastly, to all international friends, this incident occurred in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

TLDR: After 2 previous altercations and dealing with racist comments + threats of wanting to “fight”, an off-duty CBSA officer sucker-punched my boyfriend in the face and told the police it was “a heat of the moment” thing. THE MAN HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS KENT KEAN.

Kent Kean. Image via Facebook

To all who have already seen this, this is an updated post with a summary of the information as well as a diagnosis of my boyfriend’s injuries. I have decided to remake a post in order to unify the information for the public eye. Before I continue, I do want to put out a disclaimer:

Please DO NOT send any death threats to this man and his family, or release any of his personal information such as his phone number or address etc.

Back in May my boyfriend (Nathan) was walking his dogs when a cat (that was tied on a long leash and left outside someone’s unit) ran onto the common path and came onto the dogs. At the time, Nathan made a comment to himself on how the owner should be more responsible for their pet. It seemed the owner aka Kean heard and he rushed outside and immediately began a verbal dispute with Nathan. The second interaction was similar but this time, I was there as well. We passed by Kean’s unit and he immediately made direct eye contact with me. I did not know who he was until he immediately rushed out, pressed his face against Nathan’s, and started shoving and provoking him to fight. Fortunately, I was able to break them apart. Kean also shouted at us to “GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY” which is ironic because it seems his partner is also Asian.

On July 16th, Nathan was minding his own business in the underground garage of his townhome when Kean decided to follow him back and record him from his car. Nathan was extremely unsettled and decided to do the same. When he tried to approach closer, Kean immediately rushed out and shoved him. Before Nathan could even retaliate, Kean SUCKER-PUNCHED HIM on the left side and put him into a chokehold. When the witness at the scene (Nathan’s friend) tried to intervene, Kean explicitly told him to stand back as he is an “officer”. The police at the time told Nathan that if he wanted to press charges, he would have to be arrested as well. This does not make any sense as he did not engage in any physical violence.

As a result of the assault, my boyfriend has an infraorbital FRACTURE as well as a CONCUSSION. He is in incredible pain and has trouble sleeping.

I am completely disgusted at the fact that an officer at the CBSA would use their position of power to intimidate others. As a peace officer, his duty should be to PROTECT the public, not ASSAULT them. In addition, shouting gross and stereotypical racist insults is embarrassing and an incredibly poor representation of the men and women who dedicate their time working for the CBSA. The video and images below are more than enough evidence of the assault. The very first video has been muted due to excessive profanity. We are currently trying to contact the RCMP to proceed with pressing charges. I urge you all to look closely at this man and his vehicle and if you see him on the street, PLEASE AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS.

Feature Images and Screenshots via Facebook

  1. If that’s only video evidence: Nathan approached Kean instead of calling police from beginning, calling Kean racist but nothing could be heard/stated,and Nathan’s girlfriend’s post outing Kean to point he’s being threatened, I’m sorry but Kean might be able can file civilly against both parties.

    1. How can you just ignore the poor man Lau punched heavily. It should be Lau who apply civilly against both, because Lau would be punched again by this big bear ! This big bear is smart , call 911 to hide the truth his badly violence ! Sham on Kean and his family ! He should not work in CBSA, because he will punch travellers if he doesn’t like them!

    2. Could not agree more Jim. These people are only telling a self serving account of what transpired prior to this video and fail to mention Lau has a record of assault and causing disturbance and is “known to police”!!

  2. In regards to Jim’s comment, Nathan approaching Kean does not justify the assault, nor does it absolve Kean of his culpability in being the first to lay hands on Nathan (as seen in the video). Secondly, no claims were made by the victims of the assault being “racist.” They refer to a separate, unrecorded incident where Kean made racist remarks to them. Although these allegations cannot be verified, they can’t be proven false either. Hence, there are no grounds for claiming defamation, which, I might add, is a tactic used to silence victims. Furthermore, whether racist words were omitted during the assault or simply unrecorded does not lessen Kean’s culpability. Lastly, I have found no evidence of Kean being threatened nor his personal information leaked (I searched hard.). Certainly Kean has not come forward himself to claim that he has been threatened, nor provided us screenshots or other recorded evidence of threats.

  3. Hi Mr. Park. I respect your thoughts and opinion. However my main point is about being careful what you post on social media about individuals. As we both know the world can be cruel and I myself have been burned before by shady individuals. However as tempted as I am to call them out, my proof is not 100% and therefore do not want to cause more problems for myself. Moreover, maybe I could have been wrong about the person who wronged me and would have slandered their reputation. Again more problems for me then. So basically I am saying don’t make posts on emotion as you could really cause problems for yourself.

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