Item

"Anti-mask racist rant at T&T"

Title (Dublin Core)

"Anti-mask racist rant at T&T"

Description (Dublin Core)

The caption accompanying the video reads: "My heart was broken and tears shed... 'I am Canadian'. When that guy shouted at him, he didn't know how to fight back, he kept saying 'I'm Canadian'. Obviously, Canada is his home! Where is our multiculturalism? Where are our national values? Even PM Trudeau called grocery store employees "heroes"! Why are heroes treated like this...? I don't understand... facts also prove that wearing a mask can help stop the spread of coronavirus. What did he/they do wrong? Just because he asked you to wear a mask? Ridiculous!"
A video which has gone viral and prompted a police investigation which shows a middle aged man going on a loud rant varying from how he feels masks are bad for general health and how they impact his specific health, to how the virus was released on purpose and blaming it on people of Chinese descent in a T&T in Missisauga. T&T is a Canadian grocery chain specifically offering Chinese and other Asian goods and catering to Asian communities, though in recent years they have also gained some degree of popularity with Canadians of other backgrounds. In the video the man continues to advance on a masked, older male employee who is standing with his arms out, saying "where are your 2 metres?! Back away from me!" while moving forward. Several employees are gathered around asking the man to leave the store repeatedly while his wife, likewise unmasked, pulls on his arm in an attempt to deescalate. When the male employee's place of birth/citizenship becomes challenged, and the customer begins spouting off racist conspiracy theories the employee begins repeatedly yelling that he is Canadian, while attempting to get the man to leave. The customer does not mention until about halfway through the video that he has asthma and claims he will suffer and asthma attack should he wear a mask, but by that point he has made himself unwelcome and the staff tell him they reserve the right to have him leave regardless. Once again, the man's female companion is also not wearing a mask and gives no reason for this. The city of Mississauga does not currently have a bylaw or health order requiring masks indoors like Toronto, of which it is a suburb, but the T&T chain has an store policy requiring masks and has for nearly a month.

Date (Dublin Core)

July 7, 2020

Creator (Dublin Core)

Firenze Yeung

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Hope Gresser

Type (Dublin Core)

video

Link (Bibliographic Ontology)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALRZ_01ar40

Publisher (Dublin Core)

Youtube

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Race & Ethnicity
English Pandemic Skeptics
English Social Distance

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

Canada
racism
T&T
grocer
mask
Mississauga

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

mask
skeptics
racism
anti-Asian racism
frontline workers
grocer

Collection (Dublin Core)

Canada
Service Industry
Asian & Pacific Islander Voices

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

Refugee advocates beseech bylaw to 'warn and inform' after man handed $880 fine

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

07/09/2020

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

07/24/2020
03/11/2021
03/28/2021
04/06/2021

Date Created (Dublin Core)

07/07/2020

Item sets

Covid 19
Canada

This item was submitted on July 9, 2020 by Hope Gresser using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://www.covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

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