Contagious Minorities: Chinese Canadians during the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada has witnessed a sharp increase in racial violence against Chinese Canadians, and, in an undifferentiated racism, other Asian Canadians have been seen as bearers of disease as well, which often made them targets of racism. The quick transformation of Asian minority groups into threats of contagion during the pandemic points to the persistence of latent fears and anxieties about Chinese Canadians across generational differences, immigration status, and national origin. This essay reflects on how knowledges about early Chinese newcomers that were generated by colonial administrators laid the foundations for modes of racial governance that continue to inform public policy and public discourse in multicultural Canada in ways at once familiar and new. It examines the 1885 Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration as an important tool in reinforcing the political goal of "white Canada" by strengthening the power of European colonists. Less than a century later, in 1967, the immigration points system was introduced, preceding the adoption of multiculturalism policy in 1971, both breaking with explicitly racist national policies. Yet there is more continuity than there are differences across the 1885 Report and the 1967 immigration policy. Both participate in a historical narrative that excludes the Chinese from national imagining, laying fertile ground for contemporary anti-Chinese racisms during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Contemporary media narratives during the pandemic reproduce the same racial hierarchies, excluding Chinese Canadians from the nation. By placing the rise in anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic in the long historical trajectory of institutional racism in Canada, this essay argues for the need to learn about the historical legacies of racism to be able to intervene in structural racism so that Canada's promise of multiculturalism can be grounded in justice and equity.

Equipping Families and Friends to Offer Spiritual Care to People Living with Dementia: Findings from a Meta-Synthesis

Our work presents a meta-synthesis of 76 peer-reviewed, qualitative-research journal articles related to our research interest in the spiritual care training available for relatives and friends of people living with dementia. A total of 244 articles was reviewed prior to the application of selection criteria. The final sample of 2698 research participants across our selection of 76 peer-reviewed qualitative-research studies serves to demonstrate the value of spiritual care as an aspect of holistic palliative and dementia care. The development and implementation of spiritual-care standards and practices in healthcare generally is increasingly widespread. Most current training resources are designed for healthcare professionals, and our meta-synthesis identifies the need for training resources that equip and train volunteer spiritual carers, namely, the relatives and friends of people living with dementia. Our meta-synthesis suggests there is a need to develop training resources that equip relatives and friends with skills that prioritise attentive presence, spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and, primarily, sensory spiritual practices. Beyond this meta-synthesis, developing and trialling suitable training materials and events will become the focus of an action research project.