Coronavirus: Asian women in Canada are abused, punched and spat on. Is it racist maskaphobia?
- Three incidents in Canada in eight days targeted women wearing face masks
- Sociologist Yinxuan Huang says maskaphobia has made overseas Asians ‘clear targets’ as racists seek to legitimise xenophobia during the pandemic
According to Metro Vancouver Transit Police, the unidentified man boarded a downtown bus on April 15 – then immediately turned his attention to two Asian women, both wearing face masks.
“Go back to your country; that’s where it all started,” he told the pair, according to a police request for public assistance issued on Tuesday. Police say the man then attacked a third woman who came to the pair’s defence, kicking her, wrestling her to the floor of the bus and ripping out a clump of hair.
Three days before that attack, a different man was captured on surveillance footage strolling through Vancouver.
He veers towards a small Asian woman wearing a hoodie. She glances up before the man punches her in the face, sending her sprawling to the ground.
As the 22-year-old victim clutches her head and turns towards her attacker while he saunters away, the camera catches a glimpse of the blue face mask she is wearing.
02:13
On April 8, ER nurse Katherine Cheung said she and a flatmate were waiting for a food order in downtown Toronto when a woman in her 60s racially abused them, beat them with an umbrella and then spat on Cheung.