City of Vancouver project aims to tackle anti-South Asian racism

The City of Vancouver is launching an effort to better understand racism and discrimination against South Asian Canadians.

It includes an online survey asking South Asian residents to share how they have experienced discrimination, and an interactive map highlighting spaces in Vancouver with cultural significance to the community. 

Mayor Ken Sim said in a news statement that their findings will "inform how our city council can take meaningful action to repair trust and uplift this incredible community going forward."

The project is the latest part of an years-long effort by the city to address discrimination faced by the rapidly-growing community. According to the city, its findings will help determine how Vancouver can remedy historical discrimination against South Asian Canadians. 

Census data from Statistics Canada shows about 14.2 per cent of Vancouver's population identified as South Asian in 2021 — that's more than 360,000 people, up from about 290,000 in 2016. 

'High time that the project took off'

In 2019, according to council documents, the city voted to develop a report analyzing past laws, policies and regulations that discriminated against South Asian Canadians, and create recommendations for how council can address them, alongside an advisory group of South Asian Canadian residents.

In 2022, city staff and the community advisory group advocated for Vancouver to rename a street to commemorate the Komagata Maru, a ship carrying hundreds of South Asian people that was turned away from the city in 1914. 

According to council documents, the group also said it needed to do more research and hear the broader experiences of South Asian people in Vancouver before it could produce its final report and recommendations for council. 

Now, with its latest engagement efforts, the city aims to start that research with the online survey and map. The city also plans to hold community engagement meetings. 

"It's high time that the project took off," Satwinder Bains, director at the University of the Fraser Valley's South Asian Studies Institute said.

"Unless we know our injustices and do something about them, we will repeat them."

Bains, a member of the community advisory group, added she would like to see Vancouver do more to include South Asian Canadian experiences in its historical records.

The survey will be online until Jan. 31, 2025.  According to the City of Vancouver's website, the advisory group and staff are scheduled to report their findings to council next year.