Question Period Note: Anti-Asian Racism

• Our government condemns the racism, hate and violence diverse Asian communities in Canada face, both historically and in the context of the pandemic.
• Our government through the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, has and will continue to engage diverse Asian communities in Canada, to identify and develop areas for action, such as the official definition of anti-Asian racism, which has been included as part of Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy.
• Since 2019, our government has committed close to
$100 million to combatting systemic racism, including anti-Asian racism, through Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy.
• Our government will continue to support, strengthen, and engage community organizations actively combatting anti-Asian racism in Canada, including through investments in the Canadian Race Relations Foundation to support a national network of Asian community organizations.

• According to the data in the Hate Crimes Juristat provided by Statistics Canada on March 29, 2021, media outlets and police reports show that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, hundreds of anti-Asian incidents have been reported across seven provinces. In Vancouver specifically, the Police Board has reported that anti-Asian hate crime incidents have increased by 878 percent compared to 2019. The Ottawa Police Service reported a 600% increase in hate crimes against people of Asian descent, while Montreal’s SPVM reported 5 times more, and the Toronto Police Service, 51% more.
• The latest data in the Hate Crimes Juristat released by Statistics Canada on March 17, 2022, reports that between 2019 and 2020, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity increased 80%. from 884 to 1,594. Much of this increase was a result of more police-reported hate crimes targeting the Black population (+318 incidents, +92%), East or Southeast Asian population (+202 incidents, +301%), the Indigenous population (+44 incidents, +152%) and the South Asian population (+38 incidents, +47%). Hate crimes targetting the East or Southeast Asian population was the third most common type of hate crime.
• In March 2021, a gunman went on a rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area killing eight people including six women of Asian descent. The mass shooting stirred considerable outrage and fear in Asian communities around the world.
• In May 2021, the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat worked with Asian community leaders from across the country to co-create an official definition of anti-Asian racism, which has been integrated into Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy. The Federal Secretariat is also helping those leaders make inroads within different government departments whose mandates address areas of concern for their communities.
• As of September 2021, Project 1907, has reported 2265 incidents of anti-Asian racism in Canada. Canada continues to report a higher number of anti-Asian racism incidents per capita than the United States. Of the reported incidents here, 65 percent account for verbal abuse and harassment, while approximately 30 per cent of reported incidents are assault.
• In response to these unpreceded levels of racism, discrimination and hate in Canada, the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat established the Equity-Seeking Communities & COVID-19 Taskforce (ESACT), which works with government organizations and diverse populations, including Asian Canadian communities, to align the federal response to COVID-19 with the needs of populations with daily lived experience of racism, including anti-Asian racism, and other forms of discrimination. In addition, the COVID-19 Social and Economic Impacts Research Working Group was established to facilitate the coordination and exchange of information about any insights and projects related to the impacts of the pandemic vis-à-vis PCH mandates.

None