When Hector King Jr. stopped by a Giant Tiger store in east Toronto to pick up bananas one afternoon in December, he says he felt as though he was being watched.
The 62-year-old Anishinaabe man from Gull Bay First Nation, near Thunder Bay, Ont., said he noticed a security guard and staff hovering nearby.
But it wasn’t until after King made the $1.68 purchase that he said he was stopped by an employee.
He said he was told never to return or he’d be charged with trespassing.
King was confused. He’d been riding his electric scooter from his Scarborough home to the store for years, spending up to $40 at a time on clothes or food, and said he has never stolen anything in his life. And while he noticed staff sometimes seemed to treat him differently than other customers — peering into his shopping basket or following him down aisles — they never raised any concerns.
So King called the discount chain’s customer service department and a few weeks later was advised to go back and talk to the store’s manager. He said she informed him that a man who looks, dresses and rides a scooter like him had been stealing. It had been captured on security video, but he was told he wasn’t allowed to see it.
“That kind of degraded me, you know?” King said. “When I was always spending money in that store.”
“I thought, why are they not following anybody else? I see other people in that store. And they didn’t pick anybody else,” King said.
‘Your shopping habits are no longer welcome’
Wanting to clear his name and be allowed to shop in the store again, King continued to push Giant Tiger for an explanation on Facebook. However, it took nearly eight weeks from the initial encounter for someone to respond.
In an email to King dated Jan. 26, Giant Tiger said that after “careful review and consideration [the store] has instituted a trespass notice as your shopping habits are no longer welcome…. If you choose to disregard the trespass notice the police will be called to enforce the trespass notice.”
When CBC News contacted Giant Tiger for this story, spokesperson Aaron Wade said the ban has since been lifted.
“I am happy to confirm that Mr. King is welcome to continue shopping at any Giant Tiger location,” Wade said.
He said Giant Tiger sent King an email on Feb. 10, but hasn’t received a response.
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal group Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, says the ‘hurtful’ practice directed at King happens often in commercial settings, from department stores to small businesses across Canada. (CBC)
This is all news to King, who said he hasn’t received any further calls or emails.
“They never said sorry or I could come back,” he said, adding that once he receives an apology, he’ll shop there again.
Three experts said that what happened to King appears to be an example of racial profiling.
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal civil rights organization Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, said the “hurtful” practice happens often in commercial settings, from department stores to small businesses across Canada.
“Where the customer or the person coming to the store — because of the way they look, their skin colour, their physical traits, in addition to the way they dress — they are treated from the outset as being suspicious,” said Niemi, who helps victims of discrimination file complaints and supports them if they sue.
“It erodes a person’s dignity. And their reputation is at stake.”
Store employees will receive additional training
After the 2017 incident in Regina, Wade said Giant Tiger updated its internal policies to create “a welcoming shopping environment and providing exceptional customer services to everyone that enters our stores.”
It also mandated annual diversity, equity and inclusion training for all employees and created a staff-led group that focuses on race and building awareness about unconscious bias, he said.
When asked about King’s case specifically, Wade said the trespass notice was “administrative only,” and no official or legal order was obtained against King.
He said Giant Tiger will apologize to King for how long it took for his concerns to be heard and attributed the delay to a high volume of calls during the holiday season.
All Scarborough store employees will receive additional training from a third-party company, Wade said.
However, the retailer did not apologize for how King was treated in the store and declined to explain what prompted the no trespassing order, citing privacy and safety concerns.
Company’s response ‘dismissive,’ advocate says
Lori Campbell, a longtime advocate for Indigenous social justice issues and the University of Regina’s associate vice-president for Indigenous engagement, said Giant Tiger’s delay in responding to King’s concerns is problematic.
“It’s dismissive of the impact of their actions and also the impact of what that does to Indigenous peoples or any other racialized people that are profiled and how that impacts their mental health and well-being,” she said.
Lori Campbell, a longtime advocate for Indigenous social justice issues and the University of Regina’s associate vice-president for Indigenous engagement, says she’s concerned about the length of time it took Giant Tiger to respond to King’s complaint. (Julianne Hazlewood/CBC)
“We should just be able to run out and buy some food and not feel that stress of: Are we going to be followed today? Is somebody going to accuse us?”
Tia Kennedy, who is from Oneida Nation of the Thames and Walpole Island First Nation in southern Ontario, is the director of Kiinew Kwe Consulting, which provides organizations with diversity and anti-racism training.
She said she’s also experienced racial profiling in stores and has noticed that she’s watched closely by employees when she wears her beaded earrings and moccasins. At self check-outs she’s been questioned about whether she’s actually scanned all of her items, so she now avoids them altogether.
Tia Kennedy, director of Kiinew Kwe Consulting, which provides organizations with diversity and anti-racism training, says the retail chain needs to apologize to King and to the public. (Submitted by Tia Kennedy)
“We have these feelings of shame, frustration, confusion, embarrassment that come up during these incidents,” Kennedy said.
Giant Tiger needs to issue a public and private apology for its treatment of King and recognize that for every racial-profiling case reported, there are likely many more people who don’t come forward, Kennedy said.
“I don’t think it’s something that should just be brushed off,” she said. “It’s something that definitely needs to be addressed, and it’s quite sad the lack of urgency the business is taking to try to address this.”
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
