{"id":12132,"date":"2020-09-17T09:44:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T13:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=12132"},"modified":"2020-11-18T15:24:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T20:24:39","slug":"students-experience-anti-asian-discrimination-at-champlain-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/students-experience-anti-asian-discrimination-at-champlain-mall\/","title":{"rendered":"Students experience anti-Asian discrimination at Champlain Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two students at Mount Allison are speaking out about an incident at the Champlain Mall this past weekend where they say they were treated unfairly and asked to leave because of their race.<\/p>\n

CHMA has agreed not to use the students actual names because they are both concerned about social media harassment. For the purposes of telling their story, we\u2019re calling them Sandra and Megan.<\/p>\n

On Saturday afternoon, after doing some shopping at Champlain Mall in Dieppe, Sandra and Megan say they sat down in a food court seating area and were immediately approached by a staffperson who told them they needed a drink in order to sit where they were.<\/p>\n

Sandra had a drink with her that she had purchased previously at the food court, but couldn\u2019t finish at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just going shopping and then we decided to go to the additional seating area of the mall, which was almost empty\u2026 We both had our masks on and I had my shopping bag. And so we just sat down in a seat,\u201d says Sandra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t standing around or being close to anyone. We weren\u2019t really breaking any rules. But as soon as we sat down, we were approached by a worker there and he was pretty rude to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra showed the worker her drink, and then he then left them alone briefly. He returned after a minute and told them again they had to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he came back, he said, you guys have to leave here now, or I\u2019m calling security,\u201d recounts Sandra. \u201cAnd I asked him why, like you said, we can sit here if we have a drink. And we see this white girl sitting there without any food or drink. How come she can sit here and we can\u2019t, when I obviously have a drink?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to cause a scene,\u201d says Sandra. \u201cWe were just trying to reason with him. And we were just very confused on why he chose to target us immediately as we sat down instead of everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra and the worker talked back and forth for a minute or so, says Megan, \u201cand it eventually escalated to where he said you can either leave or I can call security and have you taken out of the mall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra started to record a video, feeling that she wouldn\u2019t be believed unless she had some evidence to show people. Canada is as a pretty peaceful country, she says, and known for multiculturalism.<\/p>\n

However, the one other woman in the food court area called out and asked not to be filmed, and so Sandra stopped recording. Her video is brief, and shows the mostly vacant food court area, except for one lone woman sitting at another table.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter three security guards arrived, but that didn\u2019t help matters, according to Sandra and Megan.<\/p>\n

\u201cA whole security team came and instead of talking to us first they went to the white girl first and asked her what\u2019s going on,\u201d says Sandra. \u201cAnd after talking to her, they immediately came and told us to leave without really hearing our side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mall has a policy about sitting in the food court, limiting the time people can stay there for 30 minutes. Sandra and Megan say they were fully aware of the policy, and were not breaking it since they had just sat down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to like tell him,\u201d says Sandra, \u201chey, we don\u2019t do anything wrong here. We don\u2019t really bother anyone. I have a drink right now. And he didn\u2019t believe me. He was questioning me. He was like, where did you get it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Megan says the two offered to show the staffperson receipts, but were told there was no need.<\/p>\n

Then, says Sandra, one of the staff said, \u201cwith all this COVID stuff happening, we can\u2019t have you sitting here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megan says she asked the man, \u201cWhat do you mean by that? And he did not answer me. He just kept repeating that he would call security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra and Megan both have an Asian background, and believe what they experienced at the Champlain Mall was anti-Asian discrimination.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by\u00a0Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Across the country, Asian-Canadians have been sharing stories of anti-Asian behaviour during the COVID pandemic. The swell in anti-Asian racism is being fuelled by the belief of some that because the virus originated in China, it is somehow Chinese.<\/p>\n

In reality, no country has been able to control the spread of the virus. It became a global pandemic very early after it surfaced, and as of today more than half of the cases documented worldwide have been in the US, India, and Brazil.<\/p>\n

Megan grew up in New Brunswick, and says she did experience subtle racism that she didn\u2019t even quite understand until she was older. But since COVID, she says it\u2019s more overt. Sandra, who has lived in Canada since 2014, agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the pandemic definitely brought out the worst side of people,\u201d says Sandra. \u201cThere was a lot of subtle and micro aggression against Asians even before the pandemic. But because of the pandemic and the fact that it originated in China, it gives people the sense of entitlement and almost a justification for their blatant racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megan has had a customer in the restaurant where she worked ask to be served by someone else. Sandra has had a group of teens make loud jokes about \u201cbat soup\u201d while she was waiting for an ice cream. At the Chapters in Dieppe recently, a man loitered around her and made loud comments about products made in China.<\/p>\n

Sandra says with earlier incidents she didn\u2019t want to confront people, but this time she thought about other students, especially international students at Mount Allison, and decided to speak out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a small incident,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it kind of shows the community attitude toward Asians. And we think that this reveals a much bigger issue. That\u2019s why we wanted to raise more attention and awareness around it, and hopefully hold people accountable for their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra posted briefly about the incident online, and tagged the mall on social media. She says the mall replied to a friend\u2019s post and called the situation a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d. Megan doesn\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a misunderstanding,\u201d she says. \u201cWe received the message loud and clear that we weren\u2019t welcome there.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHMA contacted the company that owns the Champlain Mall, real estate giant,\u00a0Cadillac Fairview.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the company emailed a statement from Brian MacMullin, General Manager of CF Champlain, which says the company is doing its best, \u201cto connect with the guests to apologize for their experience and any misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement includes the promise of an apology, but also explains the mall\u2019s limited seating availability due to COVID restrictions, including its 30-minute seating limit, which Sandra and Megan say they were aware of and did not violate.<\/p>\n

The statement acknowledges that the mall\u2019s \u201cenforcement was too strong\u201d, but then suggests they will soften their approach by, \u201cadding more signage in the food court for awareness and relying on the goodwill of our guests to follow the guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement also says the CF Champlain will, \u201cbe speaking with staff to ensure they are communicating in a friendly, customer service oriented manner, especially during these heightened times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two days before this email was sent, Sandra says she and Megan spoke to someone in the mall\u2019s administration who said they would, \u201cpass the message up to the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as the mall representative pointed out, the security team and the cleaning staff who approached Sandra and Megan are all employees of third party companies that have contracts with the mall. They are not direct employees of CF Champlain.<\/p>\n

Megan says one of the tough things about the incident was that the two friends felt very alone, abandoned by their fellow mall shoppers who watched what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like no one was there to stand up for us,\u201d says Megan. \u201cBecause even though it wasn\u2019t a crowded area, there were lots of bystanders. And they just\u2026 It felt like they were just watching and waiting to see what we would do. But I feel like we needed support at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people stand by and watch you face this sort of thing,\u201d says Megan, \u201cit feels worse than facing it alone. Because it feels that to you that nobody is standing up for you, that they agree with this person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra says the experience has shaken her, and added unneeded stress during an already stressful time. \u201cI just don\u2019t really have the kind of mental energy to be able to keep up with schoolwork while still having to cope with the new and old added racist experiences,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even tell my parents about an incident because, it\u2019s like, they\u2019re going to be so worried. And no parent should feel that way. No parents should feel like their kids are being targeted because of their race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandra is close to tears as she describes the experience and its aftermath as traumatizing. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no consequences,\u201d she says, referring to the lack of redress from mall managers. She says she feels heartbroken by the situation.<\/p>\n

Sandra and Megan are hoping that by speaking up about the incident, they can create some awareness that might do some good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do feel as if it\u2019s part of our responsibility to speak up and address the issue,\u201d says Sandra. \u201cBecause this is definitely not the first time it happened, and we know that it will happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have experienced or witnessed racism and would like to share your store, contact\u00a0news@chmafm.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two students at Mount Allison are speaking out about an incident at the Champlain Mall this past weekend where they say they were treated unfairly and asked to leave because of their race. CHMA has agreed not to use the students actual names because they are both concerned about social media harassment. For the purposes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":12139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57,218,219],"tags":[],"radio":[],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12132"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=12132"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=12132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}