Community rallies around Regina doughnut shop targeted by vandals

Country Corner Donuts on the corner of Broad Street and Dewdney Avenue has been a very busy place over the past few days.

The lineups started after businesses began asking people to support the doughnut shop after it fell victim to acts of racist graffiti and all sorts of vandalism.

According to the shop’s owner, Vuong Pham, his troubles started around four to five months ago when someone threw some rocks through the windows.

That was followed by someone damaging the windows again, this time by shooting them with a BB gun.

Weeks later, bigger rocks — the size of baseballs — were thrown through the windows once again.

The damage hasn’t stopped as incidents have continued to pile up; recently, the business was hit with racist graffiti.

In total, there were four different occasions where the shop was vandalized in one way or another.

” ‘Eat rice,’ ” Pham said as he pointed to where graffiti had been tagged on some windows. “And this window, ‘Go home China.’

“(I was) very upset all morning. I feel something is wrong in my mind, you know? But I’m busy, we’re very busy, and I forget about that.”

Customers at Country Corner were disturbed to see the vandalism and destruction that has taken place.

Pham says one man was so upset to see the racist graffiti that he took pictures of all of it before he took it upon himself to clean it.

The first business to get the word out on what was happening at Country Corner was Auto Electric Service.

In a post on Facebook, the business spoke out about how Pham and his doughnut shop have been treated over the last few months, and how important Country Corner has been to people in the area.

Another doughnut shop in the community, HoBo Donuts, took to social media to share support as well.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hobo Donuts (@hobodonutsyqr)

Posts like those have prompted members of the community to go to Pham’s shop, buying out products in the process.

It’s something he has never experienced before.

“By 10 o’clock, all (of the) doughnuts were gone,” Pham said. “Money (is) good but sometimes we need a human smile.”

Pham moved to Canada in 1979 and bought Country Corner in 1989. He says the recent acts of vandalism haven’t changed his love for Regina, or the people who live here.

“(It’s) crazy. People come and surprise me,” Pham said. “(It’s) unbelievable, unbelievable. I think people still love me.

“I think (there are) a lot of people — a lot of good people — around here.”

The Regina Police Service is investigating what has been happening at the store.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Logan Stein