Was Followed Tonight

I was followed tonight and want to warn others about what I experienced.

I was down by the Music Garden at the waterfront, just before 9:00 p.m. today. A tall blonde man, with a backpack and a camera, approached me and asked me a question. I could not understand what he was asking me as he had an accent. He eventually said "never mind", and I kept walking. I walk up Dan Leckie Way, cross Lakeshore, and turn left. He approaches me again and asked why I freaked out down by the water (which should have been my sign that something was off). I tell him that he just startled me. He keeps talking to me, and seems friendly enough. He asks me where I'm from, how long i've been in Toronto, if I've travelled much, etc. I return the questions.

I get onto Bathurst and say that I am going into Shopper's and try to politely end the conversation. He asks if he can take pictures of me in there, because he thinks we could get some cool-looking shots with the aisles in the background. I let him go in with me, because I figured it was still harmless and I've had photographers ask to take pictures of me out and about before. He asks to go into the makeup aisle because there would be interesting lighting. I pose a bit in front of some makeup, with my back to the camera, and he takes some pictures. He then asks me to turn around so my face can be in it. I tell him I would rather not have my face in his pictures. He becomes confused and says "why not, that is what is most interesting" and then "i'm not sure why i'm even taking pictures of you". i start walking out of the aisle towards the cash area (with more people around) and say I don't want to take pictures anymore. I ask him to delete any pictures he has taken of me, and to leave me alone. He tells me I'm flipping the narrative and that he didn't take any pictures of me. As he begins walking towards the exit I raise my voice and tell him that I heard the shutter go off, and tell him to delete the pictures. He walks out of the store.

I stay in the store a few minutes, in case he was waiting outside. Eventually, I decide enough time has passed and leave the store, and walk up Bathurst. I keep looking over my shoulder every 5 seconds, to see if he is following me. There were a lot of people outside so I felt safe enough, just a bit shaken up from the interaction. I thought I was maybe just being paranoid. I walk about 15 minutes.

As I was walking up Portland, passing Anejo, he taps me on the arm and I realize that he has been following me all this way. I scream and say "Oh my god you've been following me for half an hour" and "leave me alone". There are a lot of people around and I've drawn a lot of attention to myself. He says "No I'm not I'm going to TIFF" and then runs off.

Shoutout to the Anejo server who got me water and the kind girls who comforted me in front of the restaurant (as I had started crying after this happened), then walked around with me until I felt safe enough to go back to my condo. I told my concierge what happened and gave a description of what he looked like, in case he still had an eye on me and followed me home. I will also be filing a police report.

Feeling pretty shaken up, and wondering if I should have handled things differently, but want to share what happened so that others can be aware.