We all saw how anti-Asian hate crime ballooned during the pandemic. That was so bad that anyone who looked remotely Asian was targeted.
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In June 2010, Richard Fadden, then head of CSIS, made suggestions that city councillors in two cities were under the influence of the Chinese government. Fadden provided no proof, nor named names, but being ethnically Chinese and a city councillor at the time, the suspicions fell on me, and just about every ethnically Chinese municipal councillor at the time. I vividly recall the threats, hate mail, and racial comments I received, and this spread to the broader Chinese community. Fadden’s comments dogged me for all of the decade I was on city council.
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Once again, CSIS has made a number of comments about foreign influence on our political system, but has provided no proof. This started in Vancouver during the last municipal election, and put the Chinese community as a whole under suspicion again — and it made no difference if you were born in Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or anywhere else — just because you were ethnically Chinese, we were all painted with the same brush. What was particularly sad was that I wrote then-Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s office — he has confirmed he was briefed by CSIS about China — asking for a statement saying that such activities are not reflective of the greater Chinese community to help tamp down generalized…
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