9.30.2007

harrassment of asian canadian fishermen continues

A follow-up to the "nippertipping" situation in Canada, in which local fishermen—many of them Asian—are being harassed and assaulted around the small town of Sutton on Lake Simcoe. The practice, which has apparently been going on for years, involves young adults who drive around in the middle of the night seeking out Asian fisherman standing near piers and bridges, then push them into the water and sometimes steal or damage their fishing gear.

The police are somehow finding it difficult to believe that Asians are specifically being targeted. Are you kidding me? I have to agree with Avvy Go, a lawyer with the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, who said, "I don't know how much clearer it can be when people are describing this as 'nippertipping.'" There's a pretty obvious race connection. That's racist!

Hey, police. It's time for you to do your freaking job: 'Hate crimes' label sought for assaults. These are hate crimes, plain and simple.

And the situation is getting worse. On Friday night, another fisherman was reportedly threatened with an axe at a Kingston-area bridge: Fishing trip to Westport turns violent. Jixin Wang were fishing with some buddies when a white pickup truck slowed on the bridge and a woman told the group to "go away."
Less than 10 minutes later, they said they heard someone swearing loudly.

Wang phonetically describes it: "F---er, go home. No fishing, go home."

There were four men and two dogs, he recalls. They carried axes and baseball bats. Wang said one stepped up to him and swung the axe within an inch of his face.

"That person is so ...," says Wang at a loss of words. "You don't want to look at him. To me, if we didn't go, I knew we would be attacked."

So, without a word, they said they walked to the car while the men made loud chopping noises on the bridge while "swearing, shouting and yelling" at them.
Being protective of your local fishing spots, that's one thing. But there's a hell of a lot more to it when almost all the reported incidents seem to involve Asian fishermen. These people in the pickup truck were carrying axes and bats, in an area where there is a reported negative sentiment against "foreigners" (that means non-white, bud). While no one got hurt here, who knows what could've happened? And if the police don't intervene, something much worse will eventually happen. How long will they continue to deny that Asians are being targeted? That's racist!

angry archive