This Canadian City Is The Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America
64,314
Published 2021-05-15
Vancouver has been anything but.
Last year, more anti-Asian hate crimes were reported to police in Vancouver, a city of 700,000 people, than in the top 10 most populous U.S. cities combined. With almost 1 out of every 2 residents of Asian descent in British Columbia experiencing a hate incident in the past year, the region is confronting an undercurrent of racism that runs as long and deep as the historical links stretching across the Pacific.
Covid-19 was the trigger. But the resentment had been building for decades. Few cities have been so visibly transformed by Asian immigration—and money—as Vancouver, a struggling industrial backwater that morphed into a glittering cosmopolis of luxury condos and designer boutiques. The disproportionate rash of incidents has raised an unsettling question: Maybe Vancouver isn’t the bastion of progressive multiculturalism it thinks it is.
“Covid has just revealed what’s always been there,” says Trixie Ling, 38, a Taiwan-born immigrant who runs a nonprofit called Flavours of Hope that assists refugee women. She was accosted in May 2020 by a man who spewed a stream of racist and sexist insults before spitting in her face. “There is so much anti-Asian racism in our past that carries through.”
The backlash against the broader Asian community started almost as soon as the virus began spreading beyond China in early 2020, with Vancouver seemingly poised to become an epicenter. The city had more direct flights with mainland China than any other in the Americas or Europe. A local businessman flying home from Wuhan became British Columbia’s Case 1 on Jan. 26, among the first detected outside Asia at the time.
Months later, it would become clear that route wasn’t, in fact, the principal cause of the virus’s spread in the area: Epidemiological studies showed that the primary source of infections was strains from Europe, eastern Canada, and Washington state.
But in the early weeks of the pandemic, simply looking Asian and wearing a mask in Vancouver triggered verbal assaults—“Virus spreaders,” “Go back to China,” “Stop stealing masks from front-line workers.” The attacks quickly escalated: One 92-year-old was hurled out of a convenience store to the sidewalk; a woman was punched in the head at a downtown bus stop in broad daylight. Vandals repeatedly defaced statues and buildings in Chinatown with racist graffiti.
In 2020, Vancouver police documented 98 anti-Asian hate crimes, an eightfold increase from the prior year. That was triple the number recorded in New York, which logged the most of any U.S. city, according to police data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino.
Of course, most incidents go unreported. An April 9 survey by Vancouver-based pollster Insights West revealed that 43% of British Columbia residents of Asian descent say they experienced a racist incident in the past year, ranging from racial slurs to property damage to physical assault. And almost half say they believe the racism will get worse. Another report in September found that Canada per capita had a higher incidence of anti-Asian racism than the U.S., with British Columbia topping the list.
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All Comments (21)
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I used to think Canadians were laid back, polite, and cool. Now this crap starts up and shows me Canada is the same as the screwed up USA. I know there are many sane and kind people in both countries but it blows me away that Vancouver is just as bad, if not worse, Oakland. So sad. Racism lives everywhere.
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I thought Canadians were more inclusive and less segregated than the US. I guess Canada is as racist, or more racist.
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Sorry Asian people for these anti Asian. I am Latina and I love and respect Asian people. Y’all are hardworking, respectful, educated, family oriented and mind your own business. Beautiful culture.
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It’s not who we are as Canadians? 🤔🙄 We here in US said the exact same shit…yet, identical events are constantly unfold. Nothing will changes until one admits to the reality now and the reality of the past.
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I’m Japanese and very proud to be Asian.
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Whats the difference between Asian Hate in Canada and america? In america it will get noticed by everyone in the world. Canada news will not get known by a lot of ppl
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Canada is home of one of the most multicultural cities in the world Toronto, Ontario. We have many cultures that clash daily. Many times one bad encounter will cement a hate for the whole race. We must learn to understand each other better but at the same time we must defend against Racism. I been standing up to a lot of racism in my city, but it feels like nothing ever changes and every battle is a losing one.
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We were never a multicultural country I've said that several times people vote for a representative the representative allows the Asians in that does not mean that that is the view of the majority of Canadian I am mixed-race myself and mixed race and born a Canadian citizen I remember hearing Asian songs and logos as young as four years old
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hate. so much hate around the world. nobody seems to like the "other person" getting ahead in life. sigh
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Makes me sad this goes on here and anywhere. Why is it we can walk through a flower garden and love and appreciate all the different flowers? Why is it we can appreciate all the beautiful gems pulled from our earth? Why is it we can appreciate all the different birds too? However some people suffer from rigidity and want to pick a fight. Racism is ugly it really is. Hate is adding to the problem love is adding to the solution. Each day we can choose to appreciate each other: hold a door open, smile say hello, thank someone for kindness. It goes a long long way spreads good will. Canada is a big country and room for all.
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This is disappointing to Asians who blamed black people for attacks.
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Awwww but I thought they said black people were attacking them 😂
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Alot of the anti hate crimes happen in highly Asian populated places. San Francisco for an example used to own the title of having highest Chinese population outside of China and most of the viral footages we see come from incidences in Sf. Particular, downtown and Chinatown and also Asian residential neighborhoods. It doesn’t make sense to me. You’d think a criminal would do these acts where there is less Asians, but they happen in places where there are other Asians around. Either way, this is disturbing. As a Chinese American myself, I haven’t been out as much because of the anti Asian hate crimes and I especially warn my mom who happens to be the target demographic.
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I think the notion of supremacy has resulted in racism as we see it today. A lot of human atrocities have been committed because of this. Let us not forget the mass graves of native children or the relentless persecution of the Jewish people. I don't think any country in the world is exempt from racism in some form or other. We classify people as Asian American or Asian Canadian, etc. That is racist too. But the display of hatred and differentiation based on a false sense of superiority is disconcerting.
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Keep in mind all the legally-embedded policies which severely restricted immigration to Canada since the 19th c. before the national railway was even built remained well in place until the late 1980/90s (original outright ban with the 'chinese exclusionary act' and reprehensibly expensive 'head tax' to even come). Inherited intergenerational trauma of extreme racial prejudice when (grand)parents first came to Canada remains strong even in the kids. Further, having the succeeding generations grow up with persistence of subtle racial undertones rooted in harmful stereotypes (ref. model minority) only serves to re-inforce this ugly cycle. At best, mild prejudice and at worst, explicit and volatile actualization of targeted racism. Sounds awfully familiar to our neighbours south of the border.
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Reported crimes is not the actual number of crimes. We report in Vancouver. All crimes. We love VPD. More reports means more people making the call and following through with the charges. I am white, 62 and recovering from a violent assault in my senior's apartment. January 1. Six months later... Still waiting for the court to get something done. Nicholson Tower. This is why victims don't report crime.
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Just a reminder that we're no better than our southern neighbours. Canada has such a far way to go.
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I have lived in both the US and Canada as an Asian. You feel more isolation in Canada. The US is more inclusive if you are culturally Americanized. Canadians may be more PC, but they are not ready to include you into their league.
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Canadians when something bad happens in their country: NOTHING TO SEE HERE EVERYTHING IS HUNKY DORRY PEACHY KEEN, NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS IN CANADA, LOOK AMERICANS DOING SOMETHING HAHA
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There goes our representative speaking for all of us again
