Groups pushing city council to condemn anti-asian racism
The Center for Research-action on Race Relations (CRARR) and other groups in Montreal are calling on the city to officially denounce acts of hatred toward Asian Montrealers.
The resolution, drafted by CRARR and tabled Friday by independent city councillor Marvin Rotrand, asks the city to “unanimously and vigorously denounce acts of hatred, discrimination, and violence directed against Montrealers of various Asian origins.”
The motion, which also has the support the Mcgill and Concordia students unions and local Asian community groups, will be voted on June 15 by Montreal’s city council.
Fo Niemi, the executive director of CRARR, hopes city council will unanimously approve the motion.
“If they don’t adopt this motion, Mayor Valérie Plante will lose a lot of credibility with regard to her stand on systemic racism,” Niemi said. “You cannot not support this motion because it is so obvious and blatant in terms of the problems facing people in the Asian communities. This is a moral imperative.”
Niemi said due to the stigmatization of the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” there has been a significant increase in reported acts of racist harassment and insults directed at Asian Montrealers.
“The coronavirus has not only spread disease and death, it has also fuelled violence and hatred towards Asian people with a frequency and severity that have grown steadily in the past three months,” Niemi said.
“However, several government leaders and those from civil society remain indifferent to this problem.”
Niemi said the number of complaints of discrimination from people of Asian descent has spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. CRARR typically receives two or three complaints per year. But in the past three months alone, there have been 18 requests for help from CRARR.
Mcgill University law student Lily Wang and Kyungseo Min, a Montrealer of Korean origin, co-authored a report documenting recent incidents of hate and violence toward Asian Montrealers.
“In our study on anti-asian racism, we received more than 15 reported incidents since March,”
Min said. “These incidents involve physical violence and psychological and they affect people of all ages in communities that are traditionally very discreet. This is what seriously worries us.”
Niemi said he is disturbed by what he’s hearing from people in the city’s Asian community.
“I go to a lot of Chinese stores downtown; they talk about being yelled at harassed and shouted at,” he said. “Anyone who even looks Chinese could become prey to an insult or harassment. The concern in Chinatown is if even after things reopen, people won’t come because they’re still afraid they can catch the virus.”
Ramon Vicente, of the Filipino Association of Montreal and Suburbs, said it was time “that we address this problem of discrimination and racism before it gets out of hand.”
“We can do this together,” Vicente added. “I know that Canada is more open than any other country. Canada is No. 1, so we can address this together, proactively.”
Laura Luu, who started a support group on Facebook for Asian Quebecers, supports the initiative by CRARR and Rotrand.
“We must denounce this racism in Montreal and in the rest of Quebec,” said Luu, whose Facebook group has 5,000 members.