An East Vancouver woman is speaking out after intervening in a racist incident on Commercial Drive. Mira Oreck was in line for the Home Hardware at Gravely Street with her son Thursday afternoon, when she heard a commotion behind her. “A woman in the line was yelling at another man in the line who happened to be Chinese, telling him to move away from her, to move back to Wuhan, and that he was going to get her sick.” Police have documented an uptick in racist incidents, particularly those targeting people of Asian descent, since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Cases have ranged from graffiti to verbal harassment to full-on violent assaults. At least 20 anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported to Vancouver police so far this year, compared to