A prominent member of Vancouver's Indigenous community has revealed yet another disturbing incident of discriminatory violence.

Don Bain, a special adviser in the premier's office, tweeted this evening that his daughter, Dakota Holmes, was walking her dog last night when a racist male noticed her sneezing.

"He yelled at her, punched her and walked away," Bain, former executive director of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, tweeted. "He thought she was Asian and her sneezing as #COVID19."

His daughter has allergies and a throat infection.

https://twitter.com/lheidli1/status/1261811944975224832

Bain and his daughter are receiving many messages of support over social media, including from NDP MLAs Bowinn Ma, Rachna Singh, Mable Elmore, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selina Robinson, and former Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer.

There have been an escalating series of attacks on people of Asian ancestry in Vancouver since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared on March 11 by the World Health Organization.

Of 15 hate crimes reported in April to Vancouver police, 11 had anti-Asian elements.

"So far in 2020, there have been a total of 20 anti-Asian hate crimes reported to police," the VPD said in a May 1 news release. "In comparison, there were 12 in all of 2019."

The rise in hate crimes has come after media coverage in Vancouver over several years stirring up the racial pot over a wide range of issues, including "birth tourism", "shadow flipping", and even the cultural values expressed by former lieutenant-governor David Lam.

There have also been efforts by media outlets to link a single casino in Richmond to the loss of many lives to drug overdoses and the region's high housing prices.

As well, there have been suggestions that most money laundering is perpetrated by people of Chinese ancestry even though a B.C. government-commissioned report concluded that the greatest amount by far originates from the United States.

One recent media report on Global News purported that "every overseas Chinese is a warrior". It initially featured a graphic suggesting people of Chinese ancestry living in Canada were being controlled by a puppet master before that image was replaced.

This report prompted four former Shanghai residents who've become Canadian citizens to write a commentary on Straight.com suggesting that "malignant McCarthyism" is more dangerous than the coronavirus.

"Like the coronavirus attacking people regardless their age, gender, ethnicity, cultural background, or level of wealth, this political virus will eventually threaten all ethnic groups, starting with the Chinese Canadian community," warned Guo Ding, Kenny Zhang, Guangwei Ouyang, and Lu Chan.