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Anti-Asian Racism in Canada Predates Covid-19
The pandemic has led to a sharp rise in anti-Asian racism in Canada, but it’s not a new issue
Sometimes my mother comes home exasperated from running errands — not because of long lines at the store or the stress of trying to shop safely during the Covid-19 pandemic but rather from the experience of being harassed as an Asian woman. She’ll mask her frustration as she unloads her shopping bags and tells a story of being pestered by yet another stranger who mocked her in a pseudo-Mandarin language and demanded to know if she’s Chinese. The most recent antagonist was a non-Asian man who followed her around Costco. It’s a story I’ve heard many times in the 20 years we’ve lived in Canada.
My mother is Japanese. She’s married to my Iranian-born Canadian father. My family moved from my hometown of Tokyo to the United States in the late 1990s and then to Canada in 2001, where we have since dealt with varying levels of ignorance and harassment directed at both our East and West Asian heritage. Our experiences mirror some of the incidents that were put in focus in the news this past year.
Reports of anti-Asian racism in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic drew media attention to the United States in March 2020, when former President Donald Trump was criticized for…
