'THE NEXT 10 YEARS': KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FEDERATION OF ASIAN CANADIAN LAWYERS BC.

• Author: Liao, Carol

I want to congratulate the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) BC on its 10 year anniversary. It is a milestone, particularly after the difficult years we have had since the start of this COVID-19 pandemic, and today is about celebrating FACL BC's accomplishments and thinking about how far we have come in this past decade.

The theme of "The Next 10 Years" resonates with me profoundly as someone who works on climate change and corporate law, as we near two years of living through this pandemic, and contemplate the ecological disasters that we are leaving to bear on the next generations. These next 10 years matter a great deal. And in the midst of the intersecting crises of climate change, the pandemic, and the resurgent racism that has crested alongside it, I am grateful to have this moment to reflect and pause--in the middle of this intergenerational storm--as we look toward the next 10 years and think about what kind of future we want.

As Asian Canadian lawyers in BC, many of us found ourselves in a unique situation during this pandemic. We have the privilege of influence, of a certain skill set that can protect and empower others. We can open doors. Yet 20 months ago, on top of all the realities of adjusting in terms of provincial orders, social distancing, masking, and changes in our workspaces and home lives, we were also forced to be reminded of our own othering.

COVID-19 has been dubbed the "inequality virus." (1) It has exacerbated inequalities across class, age, disability, gender, and race, (2) as well as highlighted pervasive global inequities as vaccines get distributed disproportionately around the world. (3) There has been a great deal of suffering and harm, which continues. During this time, the arbitrary acts of overt racism that were inflicted upon any random Asian-looking person in Canada exposed a very disturbing form of scapegoating and inner hatred that hurt very much, and caused this additional--very unnecessary--level of worry and stress for many of us on top of everything else.

It has been reported that 43% of BC residents of Asian descent experienced a racist incident during the pandemic, ranging from racial slurs to property damage to physical violence. (4) Reactions from COVID-19 reflected a modern day version of Yellow Peril, (5) an echoing from our racist histories here in BC and Canada. Videos and stories of deliberate acts of physical and verbal assaults began appearing everywhere in the news, in social media, and in personal recounts from friends and strangers. (6) These accounts invoked other painful memories of the racism one encounters as these minor, and occasionally major, splotches and light undercurrents that can negatively impact an otherwise happy life.

Like many, I recall early on in the pandemic when I asked my parents not to go out if they could help it, in case they crossed paths with anyone looking for a vulnerable target for their misplaced anger. I recall periods myself where I was hesitant to go to stores and public spaces not just because of COVID-19, but because I am Asian. The busyness of life and perhaps my tendency to push down unpleasant memories like that make them feel so distant now as we move onto the vaccinated side of this pandemic. But it was only May of this year when a Bloomberg article dubbed Vancouver as the "Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America". (7) Surprisingly, our local media focused more on doubting whether Vancouver deserved the title of being the worst, (8) as though being second or third in hate crimes per capita makes it any better.

Cultural sites were defaced (9) and grocery stores, bus stops, and Chinatown became places of contestation. (10) How angry that made me feel. How disappointed and sad I was. This is my city and the only home I know. But it does not take a pandemic to have experienced racism here, nor to have predicted it. As much as we want to insulate ourselves from racism, it is important not to sanitize what has happened, and to consider what needs to happen as we think about these next 10 years.

HYPERVISIBILITY AND INVISIBILITY

I would like to reflect upon this odd relationship of hypervisibility and invisibility as Asian Canadian lawyers in BC. Then I would like to talk about allyship and collective action.

First, it is important to understand our histories--those we have been born into and those we have inherited. As lawyers and allies, we need to understand that at one point over 175 anti-Asian laws existed in this country. (11) These anti-Asian laws were put in place by our lawmakers, enforced by our judiciary, and maintained by our profession. (12) Asian Canadians were not allowed to vote in BC until 1947, 30 years after white women were given the right to vote; except Japanese Canadians who were not allowed until 1949. (13) These milestones were only achieved after decades of advocacy from disenfranchised groups. The exclusion era up to the 1950s saw many large-scale anti-Asian demonstrations in Vancouver (14) and the legislated exclusion of Asians from certain professions, including law. (15) For a long period of time, Asian people were viewed as subhuman abstract labour in racial capitalism. Iyko Day points out that it was a history of cheap Asian labour in the 19th century, later fetishized and valued as efficient in the 21st, and a built-in desire--reflected in our laws--for Asians to stay in their place. (16)

It is difficult to fathom the history of...