​By Lina Katrin

​Since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been debating over masks: should one wear them or not? How effective are they in preventing the spread of the virus? While some have very strong opinions regarding mask-wearing, others are still not sure what to do. Across ethnic media sources, there is a lot of commentary regarding the issue.
 
Amandeep Benipal, the host of the Punjabi radio show Morning Awaz with Aman Deep on CIAO 530 AM from Toronto, believes that people should wear masks because safety should be the main concern for Canadians as a high number of cases are being reported from across the border. Even though newly confirmed coronavirus cases in Canada remain in steady decline, the number of infected people is spiking in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. On the show, Benipal asks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford to make a careful decision about reopening the Canada-U.S. border for public travel.
 
According to a Spanish talk show on CIRV FM 88.9 from Toronto, a study in Ontario showed that without the isolation measures, the death rate from the virus would have been much higher. Toronto’s City Council made masks mandatory in indoor public settings as of July 7, and masks are expected to be compulsory in Mississauga, Brampton, Durham, Niagara Region, and in many other municipalities in coming days. The talk show host Fabian Merlo said that initially wearing a mask bothered him but he is getting used to it, as it’s “a good thing to take care of each other.”
 
Now, will the mandate of mask-wearing change the behavior of those who have been against face coverings throughout the whole pandemic? Even though not wearing a mask is now a subject to a $195 fine, some people don’t like being told what to do. On OMNI TV: Focus Punjabi, a Punjabi TV program from Toronto, people on the street were asked about the mandatory mask order. While one man said that wearing a mask is a “good idea” to protect others, one woman believes people shouldn’t be forced to wear masks at all.

​However, it is not surprising that some Canadians are unsure if there are any benefits to masks because of how the Canadian government handled the issue at the beginning of the pandemic. In the early stages of the outbreak, the federal government claimed that masks had little effect in terms of curbing the spread of the virus. Canada's Chief Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam had said in March that putting a mask on an asymptomatic person was not beneficial. Only at the end of May she finally changed her position and officially said that everyone should wear masks as an added layer of protection.
 
Dushi.ca, a Chinese web source from Markham, reports that mask-wearing appears to be a “simple issue” but since the Canadian government initially did not recommend wearing masks, a lot of non-Chinese Canadians were also against using face coverings. The source says that the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations had been calling on people to wear masks and self-isolate since mid-March, and the Confederation's recommendation to the government regarding mask-wearing played a positive role. To support the government's pandemic prevention efforts, the Confederation will continue to donate protective supplies to nursing homes as well as to communities.
 
According to Sing Tao Calgary, a Chinese web source from Calgary, the Alberta government is set to resume its public face mask distribution program on July 13. This is the second phase of the province's public face mask distribution program that will distribute 20 million face masks. The phase-one program distributed the same amount of masks from June 8 to June 22.
 
Since many people have easy access to face coverings, Dushi.ca reports that Richard Powers, a business professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, said there's nothing wrong with businesses refusing service to customers not wearing masks. He believes that the safety of retail workers and employees exceeds the customers' right to not wear masks.
 
Canadian Tamil Radio, a Tamil source from Toronto, discusses how recommendations on non-medical masks have been confusing for many in Canada. Still, there is visible progress: a new online poll suggests that a bit more than half of Canadians support the mandate of face coverings. According to the survey, the majority of Canadians said they feel that people should wear protective masks when out in public or confined areas such as grocery stores, shopping malls, or public transit.
 
Dushi.ca believes that with the summer, the debate over masks in Canada is finally coming to an end. However, it is crucial to analyze the stem of the debate, which roots from the difference in the attitude of various cultures to face coverings.
 
Van People, a Chinese web source form Vancouver, reported in March that even when Canada's Chief Public Health Officer said it was unnecessary to wear masks, Chinese-Canadians chose to do so anyway. Still, Chinese people worried about being discriminated against for protecting themselves.
 
Similarly, 51.ca, a Chinese web source from Toronto, around the same time highlighted various comments under mask-related forums. One Internet user, Hongyuwu, wrote that if people continue to get “brainwashed” into thinking that the coronavirus is just a bad flu and don’t wear masks, “they would find out how painful it is once they get infected.”

​BBC reports that in East Asia, many people are used to wearing masks when they are sick or when it's hay fever season, because it's considered impolite to be sneezing or coughing openly. The article identifies the key difference between the Asian and Western societies — many parts of Asia have experienced contagion before, “and the memories are still fresh and painful.” That is probably one of the main reasons why many Asian people have embraced face coverings since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, while a lot of Westerners have shunned them.
 
According to Sciencenorway, in Japanese everyday life, wearing a face mask is associated with taking responsibility for your own and your family's health, and also for the financial situation of the company a person is working for and the nation's economy.
 
Alternatively, in many European countries, garments that cover the face are banned in schools and public institutions for security reasons. Sciencenorway reports that scientists have conducted a study on why many people in the USA are against wearing masks. Even though a large majority of the informants believed they could protect themselves and others by wearing a mask, they were still not willing to use one. The barriers included everything from others not being able to read their facial expressions to the risk that they could be suspected of planning a crime. The masks were also perceived as unattractive in appearance and uncomfortable to wear.
 
Such research points to the fact that people in Western societies are more likely to put their comfort above the safety guidelines due to the lack of personal experiences with health crises.
 
Even before the global coronavirus pandemic, people across the world have been wearing masks to protect themselves from pollution, sun exposure, and viruses. Yet with almost six months into living in the “new normal,” many Canadians are still arguing over the importance of face coverings. People of various cultural backgrounds wear masks mainly to protect each other and help slow down the spread of the virus, but at the end of the day, it is your choice whether to cover your face or not. It is important to stay open-minded, educate yourself on such prominent issues, and follow the safety guidelines to ensure protection for yourself and others.

​By Muskan Sandhu

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the conference Stories of Hope: A Celebration of Canada, organized by the Association for Canadian Studies to celebrate Multiculturalism Day, were the diverse speakers who brought unique perspectives to the struggles of their communities in building an equitable Canada. The event effectively linked the “hope” to overcome these difficult times with diversity, in the process illuminating the importance of listening to myriad voices. 

But how does one access these voices on days that aren’t set aside to celebrate multiculturalism? On days that do not shine a spotlight on diversity by articulating it in Canada’s official languages? 

Michaëlle Jean, former Governor-General of Canada, gave us a hint in her opening remarks at the event when she thanked “those along the chain links of solidarity who persist in making the voices of the most vulnerable and the voices of the most deprived heard, their realities known.” Canadian ethnic media has been playing precisely the role of “those along the chain links of solidarity,” of making lesser-heard voices heard on days that aren’t earmarked for them, and thus this media is where one must look to hear diverse voices every day.  

This isn’t to say that mainstream English and French media don’t give these voices space or importance. The perspective of ethnic media, however, differs in that it is often able to present what may be deemed as the ‘insider’s point of view,’ on issues that impact their respective communities, and give community-specific opinions on general matters. The coverage of the recent encounter between a South Asian woman and the wife of Delta Police Chief is a prime example that illustrates the existence and value of this viewpoint. 

Kiran Sidhu’s alleged assault

Kiran Sidhu, a South Asian woman from Surrey, filed a complaint with Delta Police against Lorraine Dubord, wife of Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord, who according to Sidhu sprayed her down with a water hose. The alleged incident took place on June 6, when Sidhu was returning from a socially distanced party on Centennial beach and found herself trapped by a high tide as she made her way to her car parked far from the party spot. To circumvent the tides, which a police officer later informed Sidhu were 10-12 feet high, she climbed onto some rocks right next to the Dubord’s beach facing residence. While she made her way across the fence, L. Dubord came out of her house and allegedly started screaming insults at Sidhu, asking her to not touch Dubord's fence and to get off the rocks. Reportedly, L. Dubord went on to spray Sidhu down with a water hose, body-shamed her, and asked her to go back home as she didn’t belong there. ​

Sidhu’s friends arrived at the scene later and were seen confronting L. Dubord in a video posted by them on Facebook. Sidhu filed a police report with the Delta Police Department the next day, and was informed that the case was closed after a few days. Sidhu then filed a complaint, citing conflict of interest in DPD investigating their boss’s wife, and the case was then transferred to Surrey RCMP. L. Dubord later issued an apology, which according to Sidhu wasn’t a sincere one. 

​Self-reflection is crucial in times of public unrest, and it is time to look at the facts. The issue of racism is not new, and everyone who says there is no definite answer on whether systematic racism exists in Canada is turning a blind eye to people’s testimonies. In fact, several ethnic media outlets have come forward with opinions on and discussions about the history of unjust discrimination in Canada and repetitive instances of police brutality toward minorities.
 
On OMNI News: Punjabi Edition, a Punjabi TV program from Toronto, U of T Sociology Professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah reminded the viewers: “We don’t have a Canada without the Indian Act, residential schools, and the reservation system. We don’t have Canada without slavery and segregation.” To this day the old system and beliefs influence how employers perceive the potential work ethic of job applicants or how the police decide who they want to stop and search.
 
Similarly, Annie Lu of Ottawazine, a Chinese web source from Ottawa, said she believes Canadians pay little attention to racial discrimination in their own country. She urged Canadians to take care of their own domestic affairs first and recognize that Black people are suffering due to discrimination. On Mark & Jem in the Morning, a Caribbean radio program aired on G 98.7 FM from Toronto, the hosts provided an example: last fall, an independent study showed a Black person was four times more likely to be stopped by officers.
 
According to CBC News, since Caucasians are the largest racial group in Canada, they represent nearly half the victims of police violence in the database. However, when taking into account the racial and ethnic composition of the overall population, two distinct groups are overwhelmingly over-represented in these encounters: black and Indigenous people.

It is important to remember that behind each statistic there are real people who suffer from years of oppression. On CIAO 530 AM Punjabi in Toronto, former immigration minister and current Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Ahmed Hussen, said that despite his high-profile position, anti-black racism is a part of his life – and that so many of others. During the interview, he shared that he still gets followed around in stores and has a visceral reaction when police vehicles are nearby.
 
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan also shared his experiences with discrimination with the Canadian Punjabi Post, a Toronto-based newspaper. He said: “It’s the sort of story Canadians love to boast about: a country so accepting of others that even our most tradition-loving institutions will immediately welcome people of all colours and backgrounds. But it’s not the full story.” Sajjan said that in his early years in the military people were “throwing” power and privilege in his face, showing him the depth of racial prejudice in Canada.
 
These are just two stories of high-ranking Canadian government officials. What about the stories of countless Black victims who didn’t just experience an uncomfortable encounter with racism but lost their lives because of police violence and negligence? Van People, a Chinese web source from Vancouver, reported the recent death of a 29-year-old African-Canadian woman, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, as the fuse of Canada’s protests. As the tension between protesters and police officers is growing, it is quite easy to identify one of the main reasons for public frustration and calls for defunding the police — ignorance of the existence of systematic racism in Canada.
 
Fadi Al Harouni of RCI Arabic, a web source from Montreal, reported that although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Francois Legault agreed that racism against black people exists in Canada and must be combatted, the two disagreed on the presence of systematic racism in the country. Trudeau said: “Racism towards blacks, systemic discrimination, injustice, it is also with us.” Yet, many officials take Legault’s side. The hosts of Mark & Jem in the Morning specifically called Premier Doug Ford’s commentary on the US protests a “normal blind-sighted ignorance” when Ford said Canada doesn’t have the systemic deep-rooted racism of the US.
 
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Stockwell Day, a former MP and a former cabinet minister of the federal government, both sided with Ford on the issue. Van People reported that Day was dismissed and resigned from two important positions within one day after denying that Canada is a racist country.
 
However, firing government officials and prosecuting police officers who take the lives of black people isn’t enough. The public is demanding a clear change in the system, starting by defunding the police.
 
Radio host Eric Sifuentes, speaking on Toronto’s CHIN 91.9 FM Spanish program, said that he isn’t against the police but is in favour of other areas of service, which don’t receive the same injection of public funding, such as services for children and sports. When the crime rate rises, there is a call for more police officers, but when the crime rate drops, there is a call to keep the number of police officers up to maintain the rate, according to Sifuentes. Silvia Mendez, another host on the show, said that the police have been receiving too much funding for too many years. They both agreed that in times of budget cuts, police shouldn’t be spared, and Sifuentes doesn’t want his property taxes funding “the most expensive force in the galaxy.”
 
Just this January, the city of Brampton welcomed the Ontario government’s funding announcement of $20.5 million for Peel Regional Police to increase resources to strengthen community safety initiatives, according to Urdu Times Canada, a newspaper from Toronto. During the announcement, Mayor Patrick Brown said: “I am grateful that Premier Ford and Solicitor General Jones have heard our call for guns and gang funding. This is an important tool that our police require to keep Brampton and Peel Region safe.” This statement creates an impression that there can be no safety unless the police have access to guns. Yet as recent events show, the immense power the funding grants the police can lead to more violence toward people of colour.
 
Defunding the police means reassigning some of its roles rather than abolishing it. Mark Strong of Mark & Jem in the Morning said that in Toronto, where almost a quarter of property taxes go to funding the police, two city councillors put forth a motion to cut the city's police budget by 10%. The hosts discussed how redirecting some of the funding would reassign certain functions that the police are not performing well, instances where there have been negative outcomes such as violence and criminalization.
 
For example, in the tragedy of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, the police didn’t take advantage of the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team initiative that was launched in February of this year, allegedly creating a new approach to first response to mental health crises. Prime News Canada, a Punjabi TV program in Brampton, reported that people call the police in an emergency but now with the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team, they are supposed to have a social worker and a health care professional with them to help provide people with the right health care. After Korchinski-Paquet's death, there are even more calls for redistributing the police departments’ funding toward organizations that are better prepared to provide essential services.

However, in January this year, Jasbir Shameel, the host of Good Morning Toronto, a Punjabi radio program on Red FM 88.9, expressed an alternative viewpoint, saying that the police budget cuts compromise public safety. Callers also said that increased immigration and migration in the Peel Region, especially in Brampton, is causing more crime in the area. Still, the police have proven time and time again that more funding doesn’t guarantee safety and protection. On the contrary, according to many spokespeople in the community, it gives the police power over people, and such power is often deadly toward minorities.
 
Racism didn’t start with George Floyd’s death. This issue is deeply rooted in our society, in ways we communicate and treat each other. This issue is ongoing, but enough is enough. What happened to Floyd, Korchinski-Paquet, and thousands of other black people who lost their lives because of police brutality is unacceptable, unforgivable, and measures need to be taken to rewrite the code and change the systemic racism in Canada. Many ethnic media outlets agree that the first step is to review police funding and make appropriate cuts. A caller on Red FM 88.9 Good Morning Toronto bottom-lines the argument: “The police are there to enforce the law and not to deliver justice.”

​WEB - RCI Arabic -  09/06/2020  - NEWS, Arabic