Spouting Hate against NDP and LGBT
NDP and Richmond South Centre candidate Chak Au targeted in inflammatory Chinese-language ads. The ads also target the LGBT community blaming the community as part of the “moral destruction” of the Downtown East Side (DTES).
“Coun. Chak Au, the provincial NDP’s supporters dominate Vancouver’s Eastside, promoting drug-injection sites, pushing gender-neutral bathrooms, encouraging children to have sex education too early and supporting gay marriage,” said an ad addressed to Au, currently a Richmond city councilor. “Now, Vancouver Eastside is seeing rampant drug use, declining public safety and moral destruction … are you going to help them turn Richmond into (that)?”
Elections BC has no rules regulating content of ads from third parties, which seems to be the case here.
The group responsible for the ads is not listed with Elections BC. The BC Liberals declined to comment and the NDP offered up no reaction yet.
The ads can be found in both of Vancouver’s major Chinese newspapers, Ming Pao and Sing Tao Daily. The ads also ran on local Chinese radio.
As reported in the Vancouver Sun on April 6, Sing Tao Daily editor-in-chief, Victor Ho does not know who is behind the ads but added that “older generation traditionalists may have brought their social values from Asia to Canada”.
The ads do not represent the views of the majority of Chinese Canadians, but Ho said he is worried about the message it sends to mainstream society.
Vancouver’s resilient LGBT community has seen this type of hate before. The outrageous claim that the LGBT community is part of the the Down Town East Side’s “moral destruction” is causing turmoil just one month ahead of BC’s provincial election.
