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May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, dedicated to celebrating the contributions of Canadians of Asian\u00a0ancestry. But this year, it is an opportunity to understand some of the challenges faced by racialized people of Asian descent in the context of the global pandemic.<\/p>\n
Racism in Canada has reared its ugly head once again with the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014understood to have first emerged in China\u2014serving as a catalyst.<\/p>\n
Similar to\u00a0what happened during the 2003 SARS outbreak, anti-Asian racism has been on the rise all across Canada since this current pandemic first emerged.\u00a0Reports from people of\u00a0Asian\u00a0heritage living across\u00a0the country\u00a0have revealed various kinds of\u00a0harassment as they\u00a0go about their\u00a0lives in their communities<\/a>\u00a0and workplaces \u2014 from experiencing racial tirades to physical assaults\u00a0to\u00a0front-line health care workers experiencing racism<\/a>\u00a0even\u00a0as they try to save lives.<\/p>\n A\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0in Canadas\u2019 three largest cities found that 1 in 5 people\u00a0felt\u00a0unsafe sitting next\u00a0to an\u00a0Asian person on a bus.\u00a0In Quebec, the rise of harassment incidents directed at people of Asian background has led the province\u2019s\u00a0Human Rights Commission to\u00a0warn<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe pandemic must not be a justification for any form of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n More recently, anti-Asian racism was shown by a federal Conservative leadership contender, MP Derek Sloan, who publicly questioned whether the country\u2019s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, who is of Asian descent, is \u201cworking for China\u201d rather than Canada and calling for her dismissal to keep Canada \u201csovereign.\u201d\u00a0Although the Prime Minister was quick to condemn the remarks as racist, the Conservative Party leader, Andrew Scheer, and other contenders for the party\u2019s leadership all\u00a0refused to condemn them<\/a>.<\/p>\n To\u00a0address\u00a0anti-Asian racism, the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice was forced to launch its\u00a0Stop the Spread<\/a>\u00a0campaign to\u00a0counter\u00a0rampant misinformation found across the internet. A\u00a0similar campaign has also been launched<\/a>\u00a0by the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.<\/p>\n PSAC calls on the federal government to urgently increase support, including through new public funding,\u00a0for\u00a0anti-Asian racism initiatives and\u00a0to\u00a0swiftly condemn\u00a0incidents of\u00a0anti-Asian racism.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n South Asian people are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because they have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, which puts them\u00a0at\u00a0higher risk for health complications.\u00a0Moreover, many Asians, including South Asians, live in multi-generational households,\u00a0meaning\u00a0elderly members\u00a0are\u00a0at higher risk of exposure to the virus.<\/p>\n Asian people, like other racialized people,\u00a0also\u00a0tend to be over-represented in precarious employment\u00a0in\u00a0the health, transport and service industries, which involve coming into close contact with the public during the pandemic.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, to date there has\u00a0been no\u00a0disaggregated\u00a0race-based data\u00a0(i.e., data with subcategories of race, such as South Asian)\u00a0collected in Canada on those who test positive for COVID-19 or those who die from it, and health authorities have shown little interest in starting to\u00a0collect\u00a0and publish such information. In Ontario, the province\u2019s Chief Medical Officer of Health\u00a0dismissed calls to do so<\/a>\u00a0despite pressure from various public health associations.\u00a0Yet, preliminary research from the United Kingdom reveals that South Asians\u2014along with other minority groups\u2014are dying of COVID-19\u00a0at a higher rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thankfully, Toronto Public Health has initiated its own data collection during the pandemic, which will include race-based data. As\u00a0stated by Toronto Board of Health chair Joe Cressy<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0absolutely essential, as it has always been, that we have comprehensive data to fully understand and in turn respond to COVID-19. In the absence of appropriate disaggregated\u00a0race-based data, we cannot properly respond.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover,\u00a0with\u00a0jobs\u00a0vanishing\u00a0quickly,\u00a0many\u00a0South Asians are\u00a0now facing economic crisis.\u00a0For instance, an April 2020\u00a0national\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0by the Association for Canadian Studies revealed that\u00a0South Asians\u00a0are\u00a0among the\u00a0mostly likely to be\u00a0financially affected by the pandemic\u2014experiencing\u00a0income loss and\u00a0difficulties with paying bills\u00a0and\u00a0making\u00a0rent.<\/p>\n PSAC calls on all Canadian governments to urgently begin the collection of\u00a0disaggregated\u00a0race-based data to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on racialized communities and ensured adequate interventions are made available.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n PSAC reminds all members, including those of Asian descent, that they can count on their union to fully support them if they experience racism in their workplace. Moreover, PSAC encourages all members to be vigilant\u00a0at work\u00a0and speak out against racist views\u00a0and actions.<\/p>\n Asian Heritage Month has been celebrated in many communities across Canada since the 1990s. In December 2001, Senator Vivienne\u00a0Poy, an accomplished Canadian of Asian heritage, proposed a motion that was adopted by the Senate of Canada, designating May as Asian Heritage Month nationally. In May 2002, the Government of Canada signed an official declaration to designate May as Asian Heritage Month.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSouth Asians\u00a0at higher health and financial risk from COVID-19<\/h2>\n
Speak up and\u00a0support one another\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The\u00a0origin\u00a0of\u00a0Asian Heritage Month<\/h2>\n