Coteau and Collard Introduce Bill to combat Anti-Asian Hate

MPPs propose amendments to The Anti-Racism Act

May 11, 2021 | Vision Newspaper |

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario Liberal anti-racism critic Michael Coteau (Don Valley East) today introduced a Private Member’s Bill, co-sponsored by Lucille Collard (Ottawa—Vanier) that, if passed, will amend The Anti-Racism Act 2017 to expressly address anti-Asian racism. “Despite a dramatic increase of incidents since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, this government has not indicated it has any coherent strategy to deal with this alarming issue,” said Coteau.

“We need the government to seriously address anti-Asian hate. Our bill today will codify into law that anti-Asian hate must be combated by this government.” “As the former Minister of the Anti-Racism Directorate, it frustrates me that the government is chronically underutilizing the Directorate; the Directorate created by the Liberal government would have been able to not only rapidly coordinate comprehensive government action on this issue, it was designed to anticipate a problem such as this before it reaches the level of severity it has now reached,” said Coteau.

The Chinese Canadian National Council in Toronto recently released a report in which they
found that:
• 1150 cases of racist attacks have been reported across Canada during the COVID
period from March 10th, 2020 to February 28th, 2021
• A full 40% of these cases were reported in Ontario
• 11% of these attacks contained violent physical assaults or unwanted physical contact
• Youth under the age of 18 and seniors over 55 are 42% and 57% more likely respectively to report being physically assaulted

“I am not confident the Government has a strategy with respect to these issues and my intention with the bill is to compel them to develop one; this is why today we have decided to introduce this Private Member’s Bill, to force the government to take action,” Coteau concluded.

SOURCE  Office of MPP Michael Coteau