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Ottawa

Police investigating racist incident at Rideau Centre

Award-winning photojournalist Justin Tang said a white man told him being forced to wear a mask made him want to "kill Asians."

Justin Tang was entering downtown mall Friday when man told him wearing mask made him want to 'kill Asians'

Ottawa photographer targeted in racist incident at Rideau Centre

4 years ago
Duration 1:17
Freelance photographer Justin Tang says he filed a report with police after being the target of pandemic-related racism at the Rideau Centre.

An Ottawa man says he was left shaken Friday after another man told him wearing a mask made him want to "kill Asians."

Justin Tang, an award-winningphotojournalist, told CBC Radio'sOttawa Morning he had paused to put on a maskbefore heading through the Rideau Centre's main doors at the corner of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive on Friday.

Tangthanked a man who held the door open for him, but said as he walked through, the man, who was white and wasn't wearing a mask, told him: "Being forced to wear a mask makes me want to kill Asians."

Tang, who identifiesas Chinese-Canadian,said he confronted the man, telling him: "That's very unkind what you just said to me."Tang saidthe man replied:"I just want to kill Asians." Tang told the man again thathis comments were unkind. This time the man replied, "War is war," before heading into the mall.

Tang said the incident left him feeling shocked.

"It was alarming. I realized that I was ready to run if I had to. I was ready to defend myself as best I could if the situation had come to it, but my main goal was just to defuse the situation and tell this person that I didn't like what they were saying and it wasn't OK."

Tang is seldom found on the other side of the lens, but a family member captured him hiking in Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC. (Submitted by Justin Tang)

Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been reports of a growing number of incidents targeting people of Asian descent in Canada. In a recent poll by Angus Reid, half of the 500 Chinese-Canadians surveyed reported being called names or insulted as a direct result of COVID-19.

Tang has reported the incident to Ottawa police, and also tweeted about it.

"The sharing of it is important," he said. "I wanted this to be known."

"I tweeted it because I just felt powerless," said Tang. "I can't believe this has happened, but I can believe this has happened. I can and I can't."

Tang's tweet prompted thousands of likes, retweetsand responses, some from people sharing their own encounters with racism.

"When you're not confronted by these things every day, it is easier to forget [these]problems exist, and that for some folks, overt racism is an everyday thing," said Tang. "Black or Indigenous folks might deal with this daily."

Tang at a West Block news conference with former finance minister Bill Morneau on July 8, 2020. (Alex Ttreault - PMO/CPM)

Ottawa police issued a statement Tuesdayasking for witnesses and encouraging others who've been the victim of "similar hateful behaviour" to contact police."The Service takes these incidents very seriously and they will be fully investigated," police promised.

Ottawa police are investigating another"hate-motivated incident" on Oct. 8, whena white man spaton a carparked in front of an Asian restaurant on StrandherdDrive. The owner of the car,Perry So, confronted the man, who police said drove off in a white Chevrolet Equinox.

So told CBC he and his girlfriend had been eating at a Vietnamese restaurant when So saw theman spit on his vehicle. So said he provided the man's licenceplate number to police.

Perry So said he and his girlfriend witnessed a white man spit on his vehicle on Oct. 8, 2020. (supplied by Perry So)

Tang believes the rise in racist incidentsduring this pandemic isan echo of anti-Asian sentiment throughout Canadian history, including what Chinese-Canadians experienced during SARS, and has possibly been exacerbated by U.S.President Donald Trump calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus."

"I've ended up channeling some of the energy that I've had from this negative experience into learning more about my own history of people that look like me in Canada," Tang said.

With files from CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning

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