The Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre is joining the growing chorus of voices asking us to avoid discrimination and xenophobia in response to the coronavirus outbreak in China.
The centre is calling on school boards, organizations, health care centres, places of work, and public areas to come together and remember our shared values of equity and inclusivity.
Officials with the centre noting "During the SARS crisis, discrimination against East Asians did not make the public safer; instead it isolated people, entrenched stereotypes, led to increased bullying in schools and spread fear of people of East Asian heritage. It is vital that we learn from the lessons of 2003 and apply them in how we treat each other today."
Yesterday, the Prime Minister was in Toronto to help ring in the Lunar New Year and he used the occasion to condemn discrimination against the Chinese community over the outbreak.