A rally against Asian hatred in Toronto's Nathan Phillip Square.Steve Russell / Getty
Vancouver, a city located in the Canadian province of British Columbia (on the Pacific coast), has about 700,000 inhabitants. One third have Asian roots; predominantly from China, but also from the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Racism on this site is taking hold of these communities like nowhere else in the United States and Canada, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. In just one year, reports of hateful acts against people of Asian origin increased 717% in this Canadian city.
The document, released in early May, used information gathered by police departments from 30 of the most populous cities in the US and Canada.
In 2019, Vancouver law enforcement received 12 complaints;
a year later, the number rose to 98. New York ranked second in 2020 (28), followed by Toronto (19) and Los Angeles (15).
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The authors point out that, despite the fact that different polls indicate an increasing number of affected people who denounce, "it is likely that there is a massive under-registration of hate crimes." The reasons cited are, among others, language and cultural barriers, weak links with the police and fear of reprisals. The text emphasizes that some of these acts are considered civil in the United States, while in Canada they belong to the criminal sphere.
At the end of March, another report had already set off alarms in Canada. The document, prepared among other organizations, by the Chinese-Canadian National Council for Social Justice and the Canadian Civic Participation Network, focused on racist acts against people of Asian origin reported on the pages covidracism.ca and elimin8hate.org between March 2020 and February 2021. 1,150 reports were received. 44% came from British Columbia, 40% from Ontario and 6% from Quebec. Women represented 60% of the victims. Almost three out of every four incidents were verbal in nature, although one in every five involved some kind of physical violence (punching, shoving, spitting).
Both reports point in the same direction as investigations in other parts of the world: Covid-19 unleashed signs of stigmatization and xenophobia towards communities of Asian origin, mainly from China. In the case of Canada, according to reports and the media, those affected have received comments related to the pandemic ("Chinese like you are spreading the coronavirus all over the world"; "I am glad you are wearing a mask so that we do not contagies ”). However, the aggressors have also resorted to phrases that go beyond the health crisis ("You don't look Canadian"; Go back home to take English courses ").
Jenny (hides her true identity) works at a bank in Vancouver. He was born in Canada in the eighties; her parents are originally from Hong Kong. “One afternoon I was leaving a supermarket. Suddenly, a guy came up to tell me that we Asians should respect Canadian laws. It happened in April of last year. I did not report it because it seemed to me that it was surely an individual with some imbalance. However, a friend received similar comments weeks later and I found out about other cases in the press and from relatives, ”she explains by phone. "I think there are few racists in the city, but they are very active because of the pandemic," he adds.
The Canadian report published in March highlights the realities of Asian communities in the context of covid-19, although it also recognizes that "current racism is historically excluded" towards these groups. It is enough to remember the tax on the Chinese who arrived in Canada between 1885 and 1923, a fee to discourage their emigration to the country after the construction of the railway line. Some 22,000 Canadians of Japanese origin also lived in detention camps during World War II; their assets were confiscated and sold.
Thousands of people have marched in the main cities of the country to condemn displays of racism towards Asians.
Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, addressed the issue in an April interview with
Global News
.
"Hatred and intolerance in all its forms are absolutely unacceptable in Canada," said Trudeau, underlining that his government included additional resources in this year's budget to combat this problem more vigorously.
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