#HealthNotHate Survey Shows Alarming Levels of Anti-Asian Prejudice Due to COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada.
Leaders from Canada’s multicultural marketing and film/television communities rallied together to launch a #HealthNotHate campaign and nationwide survey to better understand the spate of rising anti-Asian incidents. The survey was conducted in May 2020 and sampled 1250 Canadians from all backgrounds, including 250 Chinese Canadians.
Racist Incidents Experienced by Chinese Canadians
The survey showed that one in five Chinese Canadians have experienced some kind of racist incident as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 19% of those who identify as Chinese Canadian surveyed said that they had “personally experienced racism during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Many of the survey respondents who experienced racism shared stories of being targeted with insults or questioned by passers-by and even store staff while shopping. Others were targeted by fellow passengers while using public transit. Often wearing a mask would trigger the insults.
Prejudiced Attitudes Among the Canadian Population
The survey also found a significant minority of the Canadian population hold prejudiced views of Asian Canadians as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, 14% of Canadians agree with the statement “Chinese Canadians are more likely to carry the COVID-19 virus than other people in Canada” and 14% agree that “Eating in Chinese restaurants in Canada is less safe than eating in other types of restaurants due to COVID-19.”Almost one in four (23%) of Canadians agreed with one of the statements that were used in the survey to identify prejudiced statements.
“That level of agreement with prejudiced statements is a concern and those views will no doubt potentially contribute to racist attitudes and even actions,” said Sonny Wong who started the #HealthNotHate campaign. “Most alarming to me is how prevalent these attitudes are among younger Canadians” said Robin Brown from the research company, Dig Insights who designed the survey. The survey showed that agreement with prejudiced attitudes was even higher among Canadians aged 18 to 34. A third (32%) of those aged 18 to 34 agreed with at least one of the prejudiced statements.
About the Study
These are the results of a survey conducted May 13th to May 18th, 2020 using Logit’s consumer research panel LOOP among a sample of n=1,000 Canadian adults designed to be representative of the Canadian population in terms of age and province. The precision of these survey results can be calculated using a credibility interval with a poll of 1,000 accurate to +/- 3.5 percentage points. An additional n=250 online interviews were conducted specifically among those who self-identified as Chinese Canadian recruited from Ethnic Voice Accord and AV Communications’ Ethnihub™.