Minority Report

How Asian Canadians are fighting a rise in pandemic racism

- Erica Ngao

IN THE EARLY months of the pandemic, Barbara Lee was more afraid of racism than she was of COVID-19. In March, the 53-year-old Vancouver filmmaker learned that a white man had yelled racially charged remarks at a 92-year-old Asian man in a local convenience store. The attacker then dragged the older man outside and pushed him to the ground, where he hit his head. Police later laid assault charges. During a family outing a month later, an older white woman angrily approached Lee’s own 12-year-old daughter and, speaking of the virus, asked her, “Well, where do you think it came from?”