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 has and will continue to engage diverse Asian communities in Canada, to identify and develop areas for action.

• Since 2019, over $200 million has been committed to combatting systemic racism, including anti-Asian racism, through Canada’s
Anti-Racism Strategy. In late 2022, the Government further signaled this commitment through its position to support private member’s Motion-63 on Anti-Asian Racism.

• Our government will continue to support, strengthen, and engage community organizations actively combatting anti-Asian racism in Canada.

• 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 22, 2023, reports that between 2020 to 2021, much of the rise in hate crimes targeting a race or ethnicity (+6%) was the result of more reported hate crimes targeting the Arab and West Asian populations (+46%; +58 incidents), the East and Southeast Asian population (+16%; +42 incidents), and the South Asian population (+21%; +29 incidents).
• Further, police-reported crime statistics in Canada released on July 27, 2023, shows that rates of homicide were higher among Indigenous and racialized people. The rate of homicide for racialized people was higher than the previous year, up 2%, and 27% of racialized victims were identified by police as South Asian.
• 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.
• As of March 2022, a national report released by the Chinese Canadian National Council and Project 1907 found that a total of 943 reports of anti-Asian racism were received through online platforms in 2021, representing a 47% increase. Reports were submitted in every province and territory across the country. Canada continues to report more than double the number of anti-Asian racism incidents per capita when compared to the United States.
• 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.
• In June 2022, Liberal MP Shaun Chen (Scarborough North) gave notice of M-63, Anti-Asian Racism, in the House of Commons. M-63 states that the House should condemn anti-Asian hate and all forms of racism and racial discrimination; ensure that all anti-racism policies and programs adequately address the issues faced by people of Asian descent; highlight the lived realities of racism and barriers to inclusion experienced by people of Asian descent in national consultations; and, request that the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to conduct a review of anti-Asian hate crimes and hate-motivated incidents in Canada. The Government’s position is to support M-63, which was approved and ratified in November 2022.
• Further, Budget 2023 proposes to provide an additional $25.4 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, and $0.6 million ongoing, to the Department of Canadian Heritage to continue to support Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy and fight all forms of racism, including but not limited to anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia.

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