‘It hurts my heart’: Vancouver nurse says she was the target of racist remarks at rally against vaccine cards

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A Vancouver nurse says she was the target of anti-Asian verbal assault during a rally protesting BC’s vaccination card program.

Amy Huang was recently downtown after a shift at Vancouver General Hospital.

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She said she was on her way to visit a friend in the midst of a difficult time at work who saw her caring for a COVID-19 patient whose condition had worsened.

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“I don’t know if (they) are going to get there or not. So it was a very moving (moment) for me, ”she said.

As she walked to meet a friend at the Wedgewood Hotel, she noticed a so-called “freedom rally” taking place outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.

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“I took a sharp left turn and tried to get away from all this madness,” Huang recalls.

While waiting outside the hotel, she saw what she called an “anti-vaccine conspiracy poster” on a car and decided to take it apart.

“I don’t know if it was just the frustration or the feelings of exhaustion over the past few months, but I wanted to remove this poster.”

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Huang said the driver then got out of the car and made a racist remark.

“I thought he was going to hit me in the face because that’s how angry he was,” she said. “And then he looked at me [up and down] and in an instant he said, ‘Go back to China.’

“I’ve never heard anyone talk to me like that before. It hurts my heart to know that there are people who believe that just by looking at me, I am a stranger. I have no place here.

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Police have noted an increase in anti-Asian racism amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, Vancouver police reported a 717% increase in hate crimes against East Asians from 2019 to 2020.

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Vancouver police said there had been no arrests or major problems associated with the protest, although there were traffic disruptions.

Huang said she regretted removing the poster and insulting the man after he made the remark. She said she wanted to apologize to him if he was willing to apologize to her.

“I wish I didn’t even try to engage them in the first place,” she said. “But you have to understand that it’s very frustrating for me to see this as a nurse because we work so hard day in and day out to keep these patients alive. And then there they are in the street.

Huang said his healthcare colleagues are exhausted as they go through a pandemic that seems endless. The recent protests outside BC hospitals have only made matters worse.

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“We feel extremely demoralized,” she said. “We feel very disrespectful. It’s like a slap in the face. After working so hard for the past year and a half, putting our physical, spiritual and mental well-being on the line, putting ourselves and our families at risk, taking the risk of contracting the virus – it just seems insulting .

“It has been physically, emotionally and spiritually draining for all of us, but we are doing our best. “

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– With files from Kamil Karamali

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