Link to Article: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/community-leaders-call-for-action-on-anti-asian-hate-crimes-in-vancouver/ar-BB1gI50b
Leaders of the Chinese-Canadian community say the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes across Vancouver suggests the population has not been accepted as a part of the wider society. Vancouver police reported a 717 per cent rise in anti-Asian hate crime in 2020 compared with 2019. The majority of incidents occurred last May. Deputy chief Howard Chow said he wants to reassure the larger Asian community that police are prioritizing investigating the incidents. He also urged citizens to intervene when they see racist incidents occurring. “Sometimes we as police leaders are reluctant to say this but intervene,” he said. “If you think it’s safe to do so, if you’re comfortable with it, intervene.” Mayor Kennedy Stewart said he would work to ensure hate crimes are treated with the utmost priority moving forward.
This is a step in the right direction to help with the asian hate crimes in Vancouver. They realized that there was a problem and now they’re trying to figure out how to fix it. I know that the path to stopping the asian hate crimes is easier said than done, so let’s hope that the mayor and the deputy stick to holding people accountable. I do feel like asking people to intervene is a little dangerous. I know they mean for people to just say something but I am afraid that just calling someone out could lead to violence, hopefully it will not come to that.
I am not quite sure how this would relate to international relations because Vancouver is trying to solve its own issues without the help of the international community. Maybe this could relate to realism, but they are not changing any laws, they are just trying to stop hate crimes against the asian community. But they are going to take cases of asian hate crimes more seriously because people are hurting them solely based on their ethnicity. So one can argue that this is realism because Vancoover is trying to fix their system of racial injustice based on the human rights of asians.