Canada's Most Asian City Faces Surge in Hate Crimes

VANCOUVER, CANADA - Vancouver webcaster Clay Imoo was finishing up a YouTube live show about the Vancouver Canucks National Hockey League team when a derogatory Chinese name raced across the comment board. A moderator quickly eliminated the remark and removed the person from the virtual audience. 

"But then right away, another person came in; exact same message. Booted that person out. And then a third time, another person came in 10 or 12 times. So, by the time it all happened in a span about 30 to 45 seconds, we saw three different people come in, all copy and paste the same thing," said Imoo.   Of equal Chinese and Japanese ethnicity, Imoo, who is a second-generation Canadian, says he was not particularly offended personally, but his audience reacted strongly. "People in there really got offended and even non-Asians, people in there really came to my defense," he said.  The wave of anti-Asian hate crimes sparked by the coronavirus pandemic has not spared Canada's Pacific coast city of Vancouver, where 42% of the population is of Asian descent — the largest concentration of Asians in a major North American city.