MONTREAL -- The mayor of Brossard is calling out racist and misinformed social media posts stoking fears and blaming the Chinese community for the coronavirus.
"People are saying Brossard is the next Chinatown; obviously the problem is going to start there. They think it actually started in Brossard, and a lot of misinformation is starting on social media," said Mayor Doreen Assaad.
Assaad said some of the roughly 10,000 members of the Asian community in Brossard have been wrongly targeted on social media platforms.
"Sometimes you see these pages on Facebook that relay complete lies and then people start reacting and you read the comments below, and you see that it's racism," she said.
Brossard resident Haiying Mao said teachers at his children's school clarified the message for students.
"They told every class it's a virus. It's not only for Chinese, it's just happening in China," he said.
Another Brossard resident, Joe Zheng, was a student in China in 2003 when SARS broke out. He believes social media is misinforming the public.
"You have your own minds. You receive each piece of information from all over the world. You need to think for yourself," he said.
