Health-care workers share experiences of racism,
Four health-care workers share stories of racism seen while on front lines
When Yasir Naqvi first started running for political office, people would often ask him what his background was.
He would cheekily tell them he was a lawyer by training.
But deep down, he knew that’s not what they were really asking.
“They were not asking about my professional background, they were trying to figure out where I came from because of my accent. And one of the things that I did, which is actually true for all immigrants, is we just work extra hard. We just put more into the work we do to prove the point that we’re very much capable of doing the job,” he said.
Naqvi, CEO of the Institute of Canadian Citizenship and a former attorney general of Ontario, is helping to spearhead a campaign called Standing Together in response to a rise in racism and anti-Asian discrimination fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aim of the campaign is to highlight how many immigrants and people of colour work as health-care workers on the front line. According to Statistics Canada, one in four health-care workers in Canada is an immigrant. More than one-third of family physicians are newcomers.
“I think it definitely shines a light on the fact that immigrants work hard, a lot of the time they take the jobs that are available to them, and how essential these jobs are to our way of living,” Naqvi said.
“A lot of these jobs, we never thought of them as essential until this pandemic hit. And to see that my grocer, or the person who is a personal support worker looking out for my elderly parents, they are people who are newer to Canada and are risking their lives to protect ours.”
He said the pandemic has shone a light on how much Canadians depend on each other, how much we rely on essential workers and how much of that workforce consists of new Canadians.
“It shines a whole different light on immigrants, people of colour, on new citizens,” Naqvi said. “And that’s why we felt very strongly that we need to spread the message that we stand together.”
The Star spoke with four racialized Canadians working on the front lines about their experiences with racism and discrimination while on the job.
Most said they haven’t encountered overt racism while working, but a common experience was having their education and credentials questioned. Some have experienced blatant racism at work, which they say makes them question their identity as Canadians.
Joebie Ian Tanamal, immigrated from Philippines in 2011
Not long after he arrived in Canada as a skilled immigrant, Joebie Ian Tanamal was standing in a Service Canada line in Brampton when he heard a man “speaking his mind loudly” about newcomers taking jobs from Canadians.
Tanamal says the Service Canada employee told the man certain sectors in Canada have a labour shortage. She then asked the man if he had a college degree. He did not respond. She then asked Tanamal if he had a college education and he responded he had bachelor’s degrees in nursing and physiotherapy.
Tanamal said the Service Canada worker then turned to the man and said “unless you’re a physiotherapist or a nurse, they’re not taking your job.”
Tanamal, a physiotherapist, said he was working in a longterm-care home not long after he arrived when a resident asked him where he was from.
He told her he was from the Philippines and she replied: “Aren’t you well-dressed for a cleaning guy?”
These kinds of assumptions don’t bother Tanamal, who said he’s “used to the caste system” because the Philippines was colonized by Spain and the United States.
“I think they’re just misinformed. I don’t really take them personally,” he said. “I just do my job every day. I don’t ask for appreciation or anything because we’re paid to do it.”
But he said he was disheartened to hear comments about Filipino workers at an Alberta meat plant that he felt blamed workers’ cultural background for the high rates of transmission in that community.
“Particularly as a Filipino. I feel for them.”
He said he decided to take part in the Stand Together video because he believes Canadians need to be reminded that xenophobia and racism are still common in society.
“Down the line, we’re all immigrants here. At this time, we just have to work together and not blame each other.”
Christine Sinclair, immigrated from Jamaica in 2013
Christine Sinclair says she boarded a flight to Canada with money from her father, who worked as a jeweller in Jamaica. He had saved it up by selling diamond fragments he’d collected.
But it was a different kind of diamond that left a mark on her while she was working at a facility in Alberta.
While there, she heard that certain residents were included in what was called the “diamond program.” In the care notes for those clients, Sinclair said there was a message that said “Please do not send anybody who’s Indian, Filipino, Black-skinned, African or whatever. They have to be Caucasian.”
“I was like, ‘Whoa, what have I gotten myself into?’ … If that’s not racism, I don’t know what is.”
Sinclair is a health-care aide and works with ill, elderly and disabled patients to help them perform daily activities such as bathing and eating. In her role, she’s used to people assuming she’s African because she’s Black.
She said she’s often asked where she went to school or where she obtained her qualifications. She also said she’s been referred to as “just the help” on numerous occasions.
One particular incident she said left her in shock for days involved a resident reciting the “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe” nursery rhyme, but with the word tiger replaced with the Nword.
“I was just in shock. I didn’t how to respond. And when my supervisor asked me ‘How did you deal with it?’ I told her exactly how I dealt with it — I just focus on the client,” Sinclair said.
These kind of interactions have made her question her identity as a Canadian and it’s something she thinks about when going to work or when being interviewed for other job opportunities.
“They look on you as if you don’t really belong here, but they don’t say those words,” Sinclair said.
“I worked really hard and I have every right to be here just like anyone else. Why am I not allowed to be Canadian?”
Despite those negative experiences, Sinclair said she’s encountered many more good people than bad and is grateful to be in Canada.
Ellen Hong, immigrated from the Philippines in 2014
Ellen Hong has been a medical laboratory technician for more than 20 years, but is still accustomed to being asked if she knows what she’s doing.
Hong is from the Philippines, but said people frequently mistake her for being Chinese. She recalls one experience where she entered a hospital room to administer a needle to a young patient.
“When I entered the room, the parents looked at each other. And then the mom says, ‘Oh, I don’t want my son getting poked so many times … do you really know how to do this?’ ”
She said the parent then asked another staffer if they had an ICU nurse or someone with expertise in administering needles, and they replied that Hong was their expert. These kinds of comments frustrate Hong, but she’s learned they’re part of the immigrant experience in this country.
“You know, my heart is pumping if I hear those things. But what can I do? It’s my job,” Hong said. “Just understand that, hey, you’re in Canada.”
She said Canadians don’t always fully appreciate the risks health-care workers who immigrated to Canada face while working on the front line.
“They don’t understand that we’re here to help them, you know? We’re not taking their jobs, we’re just qualified.”
She said she’s grateful to have ajob in Canada and said helping people is her passion. But some of her experiences have made her feel “belittled.” For example, when she’s standing in line at the grocery store with her son and the cashier asks him a question instead of her, she believes it’s because they assume her English is poor.
She tries not to let these experiences get to her.
“If you keep thinking about it … you’re gonna explode. So yeah, that’s what I do, it’s like, ‘OK just another day,’ ” Hong said.
“But sometimes, you still think of it.”
Stephanie Chiang, born in Canada
Stephanie Chiang, a Chinese Canadian nurse in Vancouver, told the Star she’s never felt discriminated against, despite the fact that she grew up in the small B.C. town of Chemainus, where she says there were only a few other Chinese families.
Chiang is also the only healthcare worker the Star spoke to who was born in Canada and has no accent, which she recognizes may have played a role in her experience. She remembers her mother attending her school to educate students about Chinese New Year and how her peers were big fans of her mom’s chow mein, and said these experiences helped her feel like she belonged.
But she also says she’s quick to stand up for herself and wonders if her personality has shielded her from racist incidents.
“Maybe I’m not as much of an easy target. But that also makes me even more angry, that people would feel like they have this right to treat people this way that they don’t see as equal.”
Chiang estimates about 40 to 50 per cent of the staff at her hospital are ethnic minorities. So it makes it even more jarring for her to hear about Asian Canadians in Vancouver being targeted in hate crimes and racist incidents.
“Hearing about these incidents in Vancouver on the news, I was shocked,” she said. “And then also, it does kind of make my view of the world a little bit more shaded.”