Editorial

Let’s stamp out racism wherever it raises its ugly head

We are deeply concerned, as indeed all right-thinking persons should be, about the alarming numbers of racist attacks on our Chinese brothers and sisters.

The Chinese Canadian National Council in Toronto recently released a report in which they found that 1150 cases of racist attacks have been reported across Canada during the  period from March 10th, 2020 to February 28th this year.

Forty per cent of these cases were reported in Ontario,

Many other cases may have gone unreported.

We note with concern that the increase in the number of racist attacks on Chinese have been recorded during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent study suggests that former United States President Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about the coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in China, “likely perpetuated racist attitudes.”

Critics say the former president’s repeated use of “China Virus” and other terms helped ” fuel an environment of hatred.” This was the same president who described African  countries, Hati and El Salvador as ” shithole” countries.

Race hate knows no borders and racist attacks  on Asians have been on  the rise both in the United States and Canada.

As in the case of anti-Black racism,the question arises with respect to Anti-Asian racism: Are we doing enough to combat race hate in multicultural Canada?

Clearly, the answer is no.

We need to pay more attention to what is happening in our own communities.

Our schools also have an important role to play in teaching our  young people to be good citizens and to understand that there can be  no place in decent society for racist  behavior and bullies.

We are pleased to note that Ontario Liberal anti-racism critic Michael Coteau. MPP for Don Valley East, has  introduced a private member’s bill, co-sponsored by Lucille Collard, MPP for Ottawa-Vanier, that, if passed, will amend The Anti-Racism Act 2017 to expressly address anti-Asian racism.

Coteau has said that the government of Premier Doug Ford has not indicated it has any coherent strategy to deal with this ” alarming issue.”

“We need the government to seriously address anti-Asian hate,” he pointed out.

Referring to the bill, Collard corectly noted that much more needs to be done to address anti-Asian racism,” but this is a crucial first step.”

“By legislating a requirement to fight anti-Asian racism, we hope the government will receive the wake-up call it needs to get to work,” she said.

We hope that the bill receives the approval of all members of the Ontario legislature.

Let us stamp out racism wherever it raises its ugly head.