{"id":215,"date":"2021-04-06T23:23:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T03:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/?p=215"},"modified":"2021-04-06T23:23:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T03:23:29","slug":"a-rise-in-canada-wide-demonstrations-to-combat-anti-asian-racism-in-the-wake-of-atlanta-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/2021\/04\/06\/a-rise-in-canada-wide-demonstrations-to-combat-anti-asian-racism-in-the-wake-of-atlanta-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"A rise in Canada-wide demonstrations to combat anti-Asian racism, in the wake of Atlanta shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article by Rahaf Al-Farawi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Protestors
A crowd in Montreal protesting the rise of anti-Asian racism following the shootings in Atlanta which left eight people dead. Six of the victims were of Asian descent. (Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Protesters took to the streets of Vancouver<\/a>, Toronto<\/a> and Montreal<\/a> last week to protest anti-Asian hate crimes, which have dramatically increased since the start of the global pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed the tragic murders of eight people in Atlanta, Ga., on Mar. 16, 2021. Six of the eight victims were Asian women. However, Canada is no exception to the violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new government-funded report<\/a> found an alarming rise in violence against Asians in Canada in the past year. The report detailed over 1,100 reported hate crimes between Mar. 10, 2020, and the end of February 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are making that connection, that since the pandemic started\u2026the increase in anti-Asian racism specifically can be attributed to a result of COVID-19,” Const. Tamsin MacDonald, of the Calgary Police Service’s diversity resource team<\/a>, said in an interview with Global News<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study<\/a> conducted by Project 1907<\/a> revealed that Canada has a higher number of anti-Asian hate crimes per capita than the United States. Though, with the low rates of reporting, the data is difficult to quantify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This myth about Canada that we are multicultural, more kind, we’re gentler than Americans, to me that’s just a myth. As racialized Canadians, particularly racialized women, we know that the reality is quite different,” Amy Go, president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice<\/a>, said in an interview with Vancouver Is Awesome<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British Columbia has the highest number of reported incidences<\/a> of anti-Asian violence per capita within those communities of any sub-national region in North America. As a result, government officials in British Columbia are looking to bring anti-racism legislation later this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n