[0:00]The spread of the coronavirus is affecting Canadians in unexpected ways. One of the stories that we've been following is the fear for many Chinese Canadians of a racist backlash.
[0:13]And many in the community say it is all being fueled by the misinformation circulating online. John Northcott is on that angle for us this morning.
[0:20]And John, it seems that this is a part of the story, you know, we talked about this in SARS all those years ago, but it's it's far more prevalent this time around and worth continuing to focus attention on.
[0:31]Well, indeed, because the internet is that much bigger than it was 17 years ago. There will be commented upon by historians a certain irony that you can have the entire accumulated knowledge of human civilization in the palm of your hand and so much of it is flat out wrong.
[0:46]And that's what we're seeing around this hysteria literally being fueled by this. Those remarkable shots of that Chinese hospital being built in a matter of days. These videos online are being purported by some to show the digging of mass graves meant to contain those killed by the coronavirus.
[1:04]Obviously very wrong shots of airports with shots of children in them and the story line being that the children were left there abandoned by parents who fled the country.
[1:15]Again, entirely wrong, but all that going out online. And even here in Canada, on purportedly again, entirely wrong on the Ryerson University website notification of a virus outbreak related to the coronavirus.
[1:30]Now, this is a situation where again, the university has had to come out and say quite strictly, it is not what is causing that. We're seeing this social media giants trying to get ahead of this, as they did not get ahead of, for example, uh, the trolls out there over uh anti-vaxers coming out and allowing them to proliferate online.
[1:47]If you click on something like Twitter, it will take you to the more credible sites including straight to the websites of hospitals and doctors. We're seeing the same thing here on YouTube where again, you click through and the most popular ones are news websites, not for example, the most popular, arguably in terms of the uh, conspiracy theories that are out there.
[2:08]But for the Canadian Chinese community, this is a real challenge and one they've seen already before, including some restaurants being hit. Have a listen.
[2:17]They're pretty much hitting the Chinese restaurant. And yeah, we're getting the most impact.
[2:22]people start to, you know, think, oh, you're Chinese and like, are you actually that careful of your hygiene?
[2:30]I guess it's really hurtful because um, a lot of Chinese families have been here for a long time for generations, right? And truthfully, um, I think our risk of get catching this coronavirus is the same as everybody else in in the city, uh, in the country. So, um, why single us out?
[2:47]As you were saying, Heather, we saw this in 2003, perhaps even greater now, but those who lived through 2003 with SARS in the Chinese community in Toronto in particular, remember it all too well, including Avy Go, who is a lawyer who deals with many in that Chinese community.
[3:03]Have a look. I do remember clients coming to my clinic, talking about being evicted by the landlords because the landlord thinks that they're bringing SARS. I do remember workers talking about their hours being cut.
[3:17]I certainly hope as many are here uh do that we do not have a repeat of SARS, not just the virus, but the virus of racism.
[3:27]Still though, as online media companies attempt to take action about this, there are still the user groups that are set up, the chat rooms that are almost impossible to police, and rumors, racism, can continue to proliferate right around the world. Heather.
[3:41]John, thank you very much.
