THE ANAYA TALENT SHOW FUNDRAISER

WHY THIS PROJECT?

ANAYA wanted to do something to help the victims given the rise of anti-Asian hate crime due to COVID-19. Thus, the goal of the show is to raise money for AAPI communities.

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We are donating to Yuan's parents. Yuan Luo and her parents came to Montreal, Quebec in 2000. She grew up in Montreal, and her parents are victims of anti-Asian hate crime and violence. The following is written by Yuan.

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"My dad is 55 years old and my mom is 56 years old. In Canada, my mom worked as a seamstress, a tomato picker, a cabinet maker, and finally decided to own her own business. She loves working for herself because of the discrimination she had faced in her many previous jobs in Canada. My dad worked as a mechanic for 15 years for the same company. But when they decided to downsize, he was one of those unlucky ones who was let go. He too decided to join my mum in her business.

For the last 6 years, my family’s livelihood has come from a small corner store on the north shore of Montreal. A shop that looks a lot like Kim’s Convenience, if you know that show. It is not exactly what my parents had in mind for their future in Canada, but it is nice to work on something that is truly their own.

We live and work in the same building, but the building is not owned by us. We pay rent on both the commercial space and the residential space.

In 2020, a white man in his late twenties moved into the apartment above us. We started noticing a lot of people entering and leaving the apartment from 11 pm to 6 am every day. They were also taking drugs, banging the walls, slamming the doors, screaming and playing loud music, all during the pandemic. We first tried asking him if he could plan these events less often or in an appropriate venue. He reacted very aggressively so we could not reach an agreement. We brought this issue to the landlord, who did not try to help nor cooperate.

This kind of disturbance lasted about 7 months (November 2020 to April 2021). One day, this white man came into our shop with a weapon, yelling racial slurs and threatening to kill my parents if we talked to the police again. My parents hid in the storage room of the shop and were not injured. Following this incident, in February 2021, the same white man broke into our storage room and vandalized the walls and the equipment. He also broke into our balcony but was not able to come inside the house. Again we requested the police and the landlord to help, but not much was done. Only an event note was taken.

In April 2021, my parents heard loud noises in the staircase of the building in the middle of the night. My dad went outside to check. When he opened the door he was met with the same white man who had several times tried to hurt my parents. My dad tried to get back in the house but it was too late. The white man pushed my dad down the stairs and started kicking and beating him viciously. Having heard the noises, my mum also came out. She was also pushed down the stairs by the white man and then kicked and beaten.

Mom: Head trauma with subarachnoid hemorrhage

• • Facial trauma with laceration and multiple wounds

  • Nasal wing fracture

  • Contusion on fingers, bruises on faces and body

  • Severe head wound that needed immediate surgery and stitches

Dad: Triangular bone fracture

• • Multiple contusion and abrasion on the face, back and abdomen

  • Needed crutches for 2 months

  • Has difficulty walking

• My mom is very scared and still struggling with post-traumatic stress. She is working with a psychologist to get better. She has insomnia and wakes up at random hours during the night. She has retrograde memory loss and does not remember the events leading to and following the crime. She is also diagnosed with a motor deficiency and has a hard time walking, balancing, and working on daily tasks.

• My dad changed the most in terms of his personality. He was a gentle and calm man. Now I feel he is more anxious and gets stressed and irritated more easily. We are working with a psychologist to help him get better.

• The money will go towards the legal process to claim justice for what happened. The civil process is very costly and time-consuming in Quebec. We are working on it with a legal aid clinic due to my family’s low income. This donation will help us a lot in this whole process."