Amid a “marked uptick” in harassment complaints from the Chinese community, a national organization launched a campaign Tuesday to combat a “different kind of sickness” — coronavirus-inspired xenophobia.

“You still hear comments from people on the street saying ‘Oh, I’m fine because I stayed away from Chinatown,’ ” Amy Go, interim president of Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, said in an interview.

Volunteers wearing faux haz-mat suits kicked off the campaign by handing out a limited number of hand sanitizer bottles at Nathan Phillips Square and Chinatown, encouraging users to “apply liberally to alleviate irrational fear and prejudice.”

“Ignorance has reached epidemic proportions,” read the website promoting the campaign, Stopthespread.ca.

“The world is not well. As COVID-19 spreads around the world, so too does racism and discrimination against the Chinese and Asian community. A dizzying amount of misinformation has led to irrational fear. With fear has come chronic xenophobia, causing Chinese businesses and communities to suffer greatly.”

Go is worried things will only get worse.

“We need to make sure none of us will be victimized further,” Go said.

Complaints have been heard across the GTA.

On Feb. 2, a woman entered a flower shop in the Upper Beaches and went on a racist tirade after asking the owner whether he had travelled to Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

On Feb. 19, Toronto police charged a man after he allegedly harassed and assaulted a woman wearing a medical mask on a TTC bus in downtown Toronto. Police wouldn’t say whether the incident was race-related.

In late January, the owner of Wuhan Noodle in Markham said the restaurant had lost two-thirds of its customers after being flooded with racist comments on social media and prank phone calls following a viral post on the popular Instagram page 6ixbuzztv.

As the City of Toronto has already done, Go is urging the TTC to draw attention to coronavirus-inspired xenophobia and encourage more respect among riders. The agency could also do more to track and release data about complaints related to racism, Go said.

Go also said the council is in talks with the federal government to see if a system can be set up to collect data about coronavirus-related harassment across the country.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...