'Stand with us': Anti-Asian racism in Canada is nothing new, communities say after Atlanta shootings

After a white gunman killed eight people including six Asian women in Atlanta on Tuesday night, many Asian Canadians are speaking out,calling for anend to anti-Asian racism here at home and for more to be done toprotect sex workers and migrants.

On Wednesday, hours after the deadly shootings, community groups across the country issued a joint news release voicing outrage and heartbreak over the killings, saying the violence at three Atlanta-area massage parloursis only asymptom of a much larger problem.

"What happened in Atlanta is not an isolated incident, but a horrific example of a large rising tide of anti-Asian racism," said the statement released by the Chinese Canadian National Council's (CCNC) Toronto Chapter, Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network and SWAN Vancouver and Toronto's Nail Technicians' Network, among other groups.

Police have said the suspect in the shootings, Robert Aaron Long, 21, told them his actions were not racially motivated. But for Asian communities that have experienced an uptick in hate since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the violence is yet another painful blow in a patternthat's been all too familiar in recent months.

'Frenzy' of anti-Asian racism amid pandemic

"The pandemic has seen an intensification of anti-Asianracism," said Justin Kong, executive director of the CCNC.While incidents of anti-Asian racism are nothing new, he said, COVID-19 and the blame on China as the suspected origin of the virushas escalated that racism to a "frenzy."

According to a September 2020 report prepared by the CCNC in partnership with the Vancouver-based grassroots group Project 1907, Canadians have reported more anti-Asian racist incidents per capita than the U.S. since the start of the pandemic.

In Vancouver, anti-Asian hate crimes rose by 717 per centin the span of one year, climbing from 12 cases in 2019 to 98 in 2020, according to Vancouver Police Department numbers.

It's not a burden that we as Asian Canadians must bear alone. I call on everybody else to stand with us and to stop this.- Jan Wong

When it comes to sex workers and migrants, Kong said that a lack of rights and stereotypes held by governments and law enforcementmake these communities even more unsafe.

A 2018 reportby the Toronto-based Butterfly network's executive director, Elene Lam, surveying massage and holistic practitionersfoundalmost half of all respondents experienced violence in their workplace, but less than sevenper centreported these incidents to law enforcement.

The report says that's because 60 per cent of respondents had negative perceptions of police. Forty per centsaid they felt officers did not respect them as workers andtreated them like criminals, it said.

More than one-third of those surveyed reported that they had been abused or harassed by bylaw enforcement or police officers, with 12 per cent reporting they were physically or sexually assaulted by law enforcement officers.

Lack of legal protection for migrant sex workers: advocates

Alison Clancey, executive director of SWAN Vancouver, an organization that promotes the rights, health and safety of immigrant and migrant women engaged in indoor sex work, saysthere's little to no legal or labour protection for migrant or immigrant women working in indoor sex work in Canada.

"Anti-trafficking laws, prostitution laws and immigration policies impede these women from coming forward to report violence," she said. Clancey's organization has served about 500 women this year.

Clancey said migrant sex workers often don't turn to authorities to report violence fearing they'll become the target of a prostitution or trafficking investigation herself, or be arrested and deported under immigration policy.

Most police officers also don't distinguish between migrant sex work and human trafficking, she said, adding that enforcement actions are often based on racist stereotypes, such as Asian women in sex work needing to be saved from their situation.

"These women are not asking to be saved or rescued. What they are asking for is thatthe violenceperpetrated against them be addressed in [a] way that other community members can find recourse in the criminal justice system or other legal or labour laws and protections."

WATCH |Atlanta shooting rampage fuels fear of racially motivated attacks:

Atlanta shooting rampage fuels fear of racially motivated attacks

3 years ago

Duration 2:03

A shooting rampage at three Atlanta spas killed eight people, seven of them of Asian descent and though police wont yet call it a hate crime, it has fuelled fears across the country of more racially motivated attacks.

City bylaws often harmful for sex workers, groups say

In their joint statement, the CCNC, the Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network along with other organizations saidAsian women working in massage parlours and the sex industry are often violently targeted.

Many cities have excessive regulations against massage parlours that areoften harmful and dangerous to women's physical safety, it goes on, such as prohibiting the locking of doors on individual workrooms a bylaw in place in Toronto, for example.

The City of Toronto said it has heard from workers in body rub parlous, where locking individual rooms is prohibited, who say they are concerned about this provision. The concerns are related to health and safety issues and fears among workers, according to the city.

"Recognizing the importance of their concerns, Municipal Licensing and Standards (MLS) has suspended the enforcement of the relevant sections of the bylaw. This was done on August 28, 2020," the city said in a statement to CBC News.

The city saidit has provided grants to some community groups and partnersto assess migrant sex workers' needs, develop resources for sex workers, and promote harm reduction practices for those in the industry.

In thestatement, the city also said it recognizes thatAsian communitieshave been"scapegoated" and have been facing increasing incidents of racism and discrimination sincethe pandemic started.

Meanwhile, the groupsarealso calling on the federal government to ensure migrant workers are granted legal status in Canada.

'Not a burden that we as Asian Canadians must bear alone'

For Jan Wong, co-founder of the Asian Canadian Women's Alliance, the responsibility to discourage and dismantle anti-Asian sentiment falls on all Canadians.

Throughout the pandemic, Wong said she hasbeen especially worried about getting spat on or knocked over, because "this is what has happened in Canada."

Wong said shehas been encouraged, however,to see people shutting downvictim blaming on social media amid the news of the shootings.

And as investigators continue to piece together what led to the violence, she says calling out anti-Asian racism in Canada is one step in the fight to end it.