{"id":76567,"date":"2021-05-26T16:59:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T20:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=76567"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:52:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:52:57","slug":"doris-mah-against-anti-asian-racism","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/doris-mah-against-anti-asian-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Student Doris Mah Leads National Push Against Anti-Asian Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton Student Doris Mah Leads National Push Against Anti-Asian Racism\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In April, a friend of Doris Mah\u2019s, a Carleton University Master of Political Management<\/a> student, was shopping at a Safeway in North Burnaby, B.C. when she had a frightening experience with a man in the store aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe all of a sudden started this football posture, like he was hunching and running towards me, like he was trying to tackle me,\u201d Mah\u2019s friend Katharina Huang told CTV News<\/a>. Huang dodged the man\u2019s tackle and alerted store management, also filing a report with local police.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThis is five blocks away from my house where I normally shop on a weekly basis, and that\u2019s when I realized this is really burning close to home,\u201d says Mah, who immigrated to Canada as a teenager from Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThis woman could have been me, it could have been my daughters, it could have been my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instances of anti-Asian racism have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic: Burnaby RCMP reports those hate crimes rose by 350 per cent<\/a> in that city since 2019. Nearby Vancouver was recently labelled the \u201canti-Asian hate crime capital of North America<\/a>\u201d after seeing a 717 per cent increase<\/a> in such incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI realized it was time to act,\u201d says Mah.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While balancing classes and work with the NDP and New Westminster MP Peter Julian, Mah leveraged decades of experience in politics and community engagement to launch the Stand With Asians Coalition (SWAC)<\/a> with a goal of uniting grassroots activists across Canada in the fight against anti-Asian hate.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton<\/figure>\n\n\n

National Day of Action Against Anti-Asian Racism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Mah and SWAC urged Canadian cities to recognize May 10 as the National Day of Action Against Anti-Asian Racism. After finding success with Burnaby<\/a>, Mah reached out to more than 1,000 municipalities, with about 30 cities\u2014including Ottawa, Edmonton, Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto\u2014committing to the cause. Altogether, the 30 cities represent about 8.3 million Canadians, says Mah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On May 10, dozens of small rallies took place across British Columbia in line with COVID-19 public health protocols, with people holding signs reading \u201cStand With Asians\u201d and \u201cStop Bystander Silence.\u201d On Zoom, MPs Matthew Green and Jenny Kwan spoke virtually in support, along with community activist Dupinder Saran and former MP Olivia Chow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was just that tiny little spark that caught fire,\u201d says Mah, who was overjoyed at the widespread support.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are more allies out there than you think. I\u2019m a victim of racism<\/a> and I didn\u2019t know there were so many people standing behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In her work in politics, Mah sees herself as an important bridge between politicians on Parliament Hill and the ridings they represent, where she says there can be a \u201chuge disconnect,\u201d especially when it comes to communities with a large number of newcomers to Canada who might face language barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe MPM program (at Carleton) gives me the perspective to understand how Ottawa works and how I can best translate that system and those decisions into very common and simple language to communicate back to our constituents,\u201d says Mah, who is set to graduate next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Prof. Stephen Azzi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoris has been phenomenal,\u201d says program director Prof. Stephen Azzi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cShe came to Carleton with a lot of talent and quite a bit of experience, but recognized there was room for growth. She is exactly the kind of student we look for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While the coalition looks ahead to the 2022 National Day of Action, Mah says there is plenty of work for all Canadians to do, including challenging internal biases and calling out racist incidents they witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot of potential to raise up grassroots activists in this country to hold their local municipalities accountable for their anti-racism policies,\u201d says Mah. \u201cThis is just beginning. We can\u2019t keep silent anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton<\/figure>\n\n\n

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In April, a friend of Doris Mah\u2019s, a Carleton University Master of Political Management student, was shopping at a Safeway in North Burnaby, B.C. when she had a frightening experience with a man in the store aisle. \u201cHe all of a sudden started this football posture, like he was hunching and running towards me, like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":76571,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1930],"class_list":["post-76567","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-equity-diversity-and-inclusion"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98079,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/76567\/revisions\/98079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=76567"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=76567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}