A Canadian guide to March Madness 2023

into inquiries on interference in our elections therefore must be thorough, rigorous, and attuned to institutional trust.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, North America has seen a resurfacing of overt racism and xenophobia toward the Asian community through rising hate crimes. At the same time, the relationship between the Canadian government and the Chinese government has become more strained. Anti-Asian racism is embedded in Canadian history. As early as 1885, the Chinese head tax dictated that every Chinese person wanting to enter Canada needed to pay up to $500, explicitly deterring immigration inflow amongst that population. And from 1923 to 1947, the Chinese Immigration Act openly denied entry to all Chinese people.

More recently, antiimmigration agendas have been used as a political tactic by many of Canada’s politicians, including Premier François Legault during the 2022 Quebec provincial elections. Economic crises and other historically difficult periods are often a justification for politicians and the general population to use immigrant groups as scapegoats to explain large societal issues and to cull favour from voters. Even