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except U.S. citizens, even though data now shows a large number
of travellers infected with COVID-19 were American as opposed to
Asian.42
Did Canada contemplate the effect border closures would have
on the public’s fears? Public health researchers recognize that “[f]ear
is further fuelled when infection control techniques and restrictive
practices such as quarantine and isolation are employed to protect the
public’s health.”43 The partial closure of the border is a continuation of
the practice of “selective inclusion,” allowing racialized labour to work
in essential services (albeit in problematic conditions) while calming
the fears and anxiety of a public that views Asians as a disease.
While there is not a complete border shutdown and the mea-
sures do not directly prohibit the entry of Asians, the exclusions still
may serve no other function but to pacify fear and anxiety of people
in Canada while allowing useful Asians in. By closing off the border
to the non-essential, the government may have reinforced narratives
that foreigners, specifically Asians, are the source of the virus and that
we should keep them out.
Essential Migrant Labour in a Pandemic
What is striking is that essential work in health care, food processing,
and agriculture is largely being done by racialized migrant workers,
including asylum seekers.44 Outbreaks in these environments have
been blamed on them: for example, Filipino workers in meat-packing
plants and long-term care facilities. In both of these examples, Asian
migrant workers are cast as carriers of the disease, further perpetuat-
ing narratives of the yellow peril. Some news coverage has pointed
to crowded living and working conditions, the lack of safety equip-
ment, and the fact that health care workers in long-term care facilities
42. Ryan Tumility, “Canada’s Early COVID-19 Cases from the U.S. not China,
Provincial Data Shows”, National Post (30 April 2020), online: <nationalpost.
com/news/politics/canadas-early-covid-19-cases-came-from-the-u-s-not-china-
provincial-data-shows>.
43. Person et al, supra note 1 at 358.
44. Verity Stevenson & Benjamin Shingler, “Quebec Relies on Hundreds of Asylum
Seekers in Long-Term Care Battle Against COVID-19”, CBC News (8 May
2020), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-chsld-asylum-seekers-
1.5559354?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar>; Yves Boisvert, “Il s’appelait Marcelin
Francois”, La Presse (8 May 2020), online: <plus.lapresse.ca/screens/3c5f9503-
455d-479e-9b25-72fa1b1944c8__7C___0.html?utm_medium=Twitter&utm_
campaign=Microsite+Share&utm_content=Screen>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International