Hold on here.
There are so many incongruities in your story that I do tend to believe that you were the offender and not the other guy. Sure, he could have kept his reaction in check, but you were the one who provoked the conflict.
You say in your opening "So anyway, I was in the parking lot at a grocery store in South Surrey sitting in the car reading my e-mails on my phone before going in. I had to park pretty close to the guy beside me because the other guy next to me had gone into my space a bit.
The next thing I know this enraged guy (a bit overweight and probably about 58-60) starts yelling and swearing at me for no apparent reason."
No apparent reason? You just stated that you were aware you had parked too close to his truck preventing him from entering on the driver's side.
Then you say: "Luckily I had the doors locked, thanks to the reputation the area has for car theft and assault.
And then you repeat: "So I'm sitting there and I have no idea why the guy is doing this and I politely asked him what's up. He kept yelling and swearing, dropping f-bombs left and right without ever really trying to tell me why he's so mad. Besides the swearing, all I could make out was "get lost you maniac."
Then you state: "I finally figured out that he couldn't get the door of his truck open."
Not true, mister. You KNEW you were parked too close for him to open his door. Don't underestimate our intelligence, please.
Then you continue: "I tried to politely apologize and explain to him that that I had to park so close to him because the guy next to me had parked too close to me."
What makes you believe that he could hear your polite apology through a closed car door when you said earlier that with the doors closed you couldn't make out what he was yelling to you?
And then comes the bomb: "I also suggested that he could just climb in on the other side of his truck."
Let me get this straight: YOU asked someone to enter their car on the passenger side when YOU were encroaching their parking space and preventing them from opening their driver's door?
Seriously? What planet are you from, man?
Then you go on to whine that "he didn't even listen to me and had instead walked over to his truck and had started banging his door against the side of my car".
Trust me, you are lucky that's all he did considering your appalling rudeness towards him.
You think that it is easy for a 60-year-old overweight person to climb on the other side of his truck and just shift to the driver side, huh? Well, I have news for you. For many people it is not!
Put yourself in the other person's shoes before you draw any conclusions.
Even if the person is fit and all, what if the space on the other side is narrow, too? Did you even bother to check?
If it had been me, I know that I would have been awfully frustrated to see entry to my car blocked by an inconsiderate punk browsing his cellphone when he clearly knows he is too close to my car. I would have hoped to hear your engine being started and see your car moving out of there even before I got to the side of my car.
Your final thought: I thought that Canada was all about preserving a just society.
It is, indeed. But a just society is one in which your rights stop where another person's rights begin .
What part of it you don't understand?