Stabbing of Seoul researcher in Montreal sends shock waves through Asian community
In late February, a South Korean research fellow arrived in Montreal from Seoul, his wife and two preschool-age children in tow.
About 10 metres from the market, a stranger stabbed him in the neck with what he would later describe as a hunting knife. The assailant glared at him, then took off without saying a word. Bleeding heavily from the wound, the man stumbled into the market and pleaded for help. “People are scared,” said Laura Luu, a Vietnamese Montrealer who started a support group on Facebook for Asian Quebecers who’ve suffered hateful incidents during the pandemic. And though dozens have come forward in the group about instances of verbal abuse, Luu, 37, believes those incidents represent “the tip of the iceberg.”
Though he expressed gratitude for everyone who helped him after the stabbing, he and his family have since returned to South Korea. The mental trauma and fear were too much to bear to stay in Montreal. “This circumstantial evidence,” he later wrote in an email, “makes me have the conviction that it was a hate crime COVID-19.”The employee who helped the man when he stumbled into the market quit soon after, traumatized by the incident. Another employee told the Montreal Gazette she believes the woman has since left the province.
It is the stabbing, along with hearing about an increase in public insults and cases of vandalism in Montreal’s Chinatown, that pushed Luu to create the Facebook group in late March. The incidents made her feel alone and powerless, she says.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Asian stocks mixed amid China tension with U.S., AustraliaAsian stock markets were mixed Thursday after Wall Street rose despite trade tensions between China and Washington and Australia.
Read more »
Asian shares fall on US friction with China, Hong Kong fearsShares slipped in Asia on Friday as tensions flared between the U.S. and China and as more job losses compounded the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more »
What's The Role Of Social Media During A Pandemic?And how is it being used positively as the world grapples with the novel coronavirus crisis?
Read more »
Rights groups say Montreal inmate’s COVID-19 death highlights need for actionThe 72-year-old detainee died on Tuesday at the Bordeaux provincial jail in the north end of the city, the groups said
Read more »