I would like to thank you for the opportunity to address the Standing Committee on Health regarding Canada's response to the outbreak of the coronavirus. My name is Kennes Lin, and I represent the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice. I am also co-chair of the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter. With me is Avvy Go, the clinic director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic.
Since the formation of the Chinese Canadian National Council, or CCNC, exactly 40 years ago, the organization has spoken out against racial discrimination against Chinese in Canada. Among other things, CCNC took the leadership role in the campaign to redress the Chinese head tax and exclusion act, which led to a parliamentary apology for the head tax payers and their families. Building on the legacy of CCNC, the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice was launched in 2019 to educate, engage and advocate for equity and justice for all in Canada. Specifically for the Toronto chapter that I speak for, we are currently an organization of Chinese Canadians in the city of Toronto that promotes equity, social justice, inclusive civic participation and respect for diversity.
CCNC-SJ's mission for equity and justice has been especially important to me in the past week as co-chair of CCNCTO and personally as a Chinese Canadian living in Toronto. Since the announcement of the hospitalization of two individuals with the coronavirus in Toronto, for Chinese Canadians it not only meant the arrival of an outbreak of fear, which all Canadians have, of catching the new virus. This fear was also immediately layered on with the pandemic of fear of being singled out, blamed for, and suspected of transmitting the virus, all for simply being Chinese.
What makes the recent upswing of racism and xenophobia toward members of the Chinese Canadian community especially triggering is that it invokes our collective memory of similar mistreatment and discrimination we faced during the SARS pandemic in 2003: “The SARS epidemic in 2003 had serious health consequences for many in Canada, with 438 suspected cases and 44 deaths. But for Chinese and Southeast Asian communities in Canada, it was compounded by serious social and economic implications.”
Mainstream media constructed a media event out of SARS and fuelled public fear and panic, contributing to the racialization of SARS. When anti-Chinese presumptions circulated, Chinese and Southeast Asians already working in precarious working conditions lost their jobs and were left with no livelihood. When customers stayed away from Chinese businesses and restaurants, this led to an estimated 40% to 80% financial loss in Toronto's Chinatown. When many were assumed to be Chinese, they faced daily incidents of verbal harassment and physical violence.
Today, 17 years on from the SARS pandemic, I witness the unfolding of a similar rerun of anti-Chinese racism with the novel coronavirus outbreak. This past week, my organization received angry phone calls, messages and emails placing blame on the Chinese community for the coronavirus pandemic. This time, however, anti-Chinese racism is fuelled by the powerful and dangerous tool of social media. In the past week, a CTV journalist was fired for posting an Instagram selfie with a Chinese hairdresser wearing a mask, stating in the caption, “Hopefully ALL I got today was a haircut #CoronaOutbreak #Coronavirustoronto”. Still, in the past week, a video post was shared multiple times showing a customer walking into a Chinese restaurant named Wuhan Noodle with a caption reading, “The Wuhan virus has spread to Markham”, a city just north of Toronto with a large Chinese Canadian population. As the World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency, we can only expect more racist incidents.
I will now turn to Avvy Go to talk about her clinic's involvement during the SARS outbreak and our recommendations for the committee on how to address the rising xenophobia and racism.