The Hudson’s Bay Company is apologizing after using a photo of a Black anti-racism advocate as one of the faces of a fundraising campaign for Indigenous, Black and people of colour without asking for her permission or that of the original photographer — also a person of colour.
Hadiya Roderique, who works as an advocate on equity, diversity and inclusion, spoke out on Twitter after a friend visited one of The Bay’s department stores over the weekend and noted her face on countertop sign seeking donations for the company’s “Charter for Change” initiative.
“She said, ‘I didn’t know you were doing work for The Bay,'” said Roderique, a lawyer, who is not practising.
Roderique replied that she wasn’t.
The photo was originally taken by Luis Mora for a piece authored by Roderique for the Globe and Mail, called “Black on Bay Street,” in which Roderique spoke out about working in law as a Black woman, fitting in and the roadblocks she encountered.
“For that photo to have been the one that was co-opted without my consent, without my permission, and as I understand it, without the consent or the permission of the photographer either, seemed particularly problematic,” she said.
<a href=”https://twitter.com/hadiyaroderique?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@hadiyaroderique</a> This image was used by mistake – we deeply regret the error and are reaching out directly to explain and correct.
Launched in May of this year, the Charter for Change campaign was billed as a “social impact platform,” meant to update the company’s Royal Charter, first granted by the British in 1670, which gave it an exclusive trading monopoly over the Hudson Bay drainage basin.
The company said earlier this year it would give $30 million over 10 years to organizations “working to advance racial equity and inclusion, through … education, employment and empowerment.”
“The goals of the campaign seem great,” Roderique told CBC News. “But I’m an educator that certainly wasn’t empowered or employed.”
The company says the image was used “by mistake” and the photo has since been removed.
It came “from a photographer’s website used as inspiration when developing the campaign,” spokesperson Tiffany Bourre said in a statement.
“However it did not get updated, as was intended, to reflect one of the participating Canadians in the Hudson’s Bay Charter for Change campaign. We deeply regret the error.”
Roderique says she’s been assured the company is working to pull her photo from its stores and that remains her main concern.
In a statement to CBC News, the photography agency representing Luis Mora, KZM Agency, said it did not sell the photo to The Bay or give it permission to use it, and was unaware it had been used by the company until being contacted by CBC News.
Part of its mission is to empower marginalized artists and “protect them from abuses in the world of photography and imaging,” said the agency’s founder, Kathi Ziolkowski.
“Before we would consider something like that, we would need to get permission from the person in the image — and make sure that they approved and were getting paid for it,” she said.
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, says he’s worked with public and private organizations and has seen “a lot of learning” when it comes to connecting with diverse communities. But at the same time “a lot of mistakes are being made.”
Representation, inclusion and empowerment “needs to be done with those parties — and with the permission of, and hopefully compensation of, as well.”
“In this case, there’s been an acknowledgement that a mistake was made. I think importantly The Bay needs to demonstrate how they’re going to rectify the mistake.”
For her part, Roderique says she might like to see The Bay make a financial contribution to a Black or Indigenous organization, but is still considering her next steps.
“When I spoke to The Bay, they didn’t mince words and said this was completely their error. Good first step,” she said.
Still, she says, it’s a mistake that never should have happened.
“That happens so often when you have Black creation, Indigenous creation, creation from other people of colour — their words, their ideas, their thoughts, their images being used by others … and not really giving attribution to the original creator,” she said.
“Especially when you’re doing things of this nature; when you’re using the images of people of colour to signal and try to solicit funds for anti-racism and other projects related to people of colour, you need to make sure, extra sure, that you are crediting them and crediting their work and make sure that people are being compensated.”
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.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
