Pandemic year a breeding ground for race-based hate-incidents

While the pandemic has brought near unthinkable tragedy, it has also been a breeding ground for race-based hate-crimes.

According to Toronto Police, 2020 saw a 42 per cent increase in hate crimes in the city. In an email to CityNews, police say they have seen an increase in the number of hate-motivated occurrences, comparing 2019 to 2020, adding that race and ethnicity have been a factor, “including incidents against Asian people.”

Multiple incidents caught on camera back up the numbers of Asian-Canadians being singled out and attacked.

This past July, a man refusing to wear a mask inside a T&T supermarket in Mississauga began screaming at an employee to “go back to China and take your Coronavirus with you.” That same month in Toronto, a Canadian of Asian descent was accosted while reading a book in a park, when a woman began yelling “all Chinese people should go to jail.”

Racist rants have also turned violent across the country. Last March in Vancouver, a 92-year-old with dementia was shoved out of a store, falling and hitting his head on the ground. And in April, a young woman waiting to take the bus in Vancouver was punched in the face during an unprovoked attack.

Recently while speaking to Citytv for the original documentary, “Veracity: In Their Own Words,” Vancouver’s deputy chief constable Howard Chow, noted that the spike in hate crimes happened suddenly one year ago this month.

“When we started to see a huge spike was right when COVID happened, where we started to have concerns that it was specifically targeting the Chinese community,” said Chow.

Eliminatehate.org and covidracism.ca have been tracking anti-Asian hate related data and found 28 per cent of all reported incidents across Canada have taken place in Vancouver with Toronto right behind at 26 per cent.

The Ontario government has dedicated $2.6 million over the next two years to help communities battle hate motivated crime. The Chinese Cultural Centre of the Greater Toronto Area is receiving about $100,000 from that fund, and using it to launch a program called Stronger Together. Chair Alan Lam has been tasked with planning the rollout which will launch in the next two months.

“We’d like to educate the general public about our culture,” said Lam. “We are, in general terms, here to work together and live in harmony. I am a Canadian who happens to be of Chinese descent.” As part of the “Strong Together” program, Lam plans to launch a series of online seminars to engage the community at large.

Hate-related incidents often go unreported to police, meaning the reality on the streets could be much worse. Toronto Police are expected to release more detailed data around hate-crimes this April.