A member of the local Chinese community is raising the spectre of racism after a recent incident in the city’s downtown.

Business owner Bob Hong was initially concerned about construction near the Chinese Head Tax Memorial on Holdsworth Lane, across from City Hall.

The monument and storyboards were covered with foam board, but that wasn’t enough to shield them from the work site.

Hong says the workers, subcontracted by the city, displayed “ignorance and insensitivity” toward both he, and the site, as he took pictures.

Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary received Hong’s complaint and raised the issue at this week’s council meeting.

She says it was an unfortunate incident in many respects, particularly since it conjured up incidents of racism experienced in Hong’s earlier years.

Hong declined an interview, telling VOCM News that the incident, on top of business pressures in the pandemic, makes it hard to talk about.

But he noted the irony of the monument’s message of sensitivity and understanding, versus the recent lack of it right at that site.

The head tax was imposed in the early 1900s, to restrict the number of Chinese nationals immigrating to the province.