CHMA first reported the story<\/a>\u00a0of Sandra and Megan (not the students\u2019 real names) on September 17, 2020.<\/p>\nOn a Saturday afternoon, after doing some shopping at Champlain Mall in Dieppe, Sandra and Megan say they sat down in a food court seating area and were immediately approached by a staff person who told them they needed a drink in order to sit where they were.<\/p>\n
The mall policy is that patrons cannot sit down without having purchased food or drink, and that people can only sit for a maximum of 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
Sandra told the staff person she had a drink with her that she had purchased previously at the food court, but couldn\u2019t finish at the time. She also told him they had not been sitting there for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
After leaving and coming back, the staff person continued to insist the two shoppers leave, telling them he would call security if they did not. Sandra and Megan pointed out that another person, a white girl, was sitting at a nearby table with no food or drink and not being asked to leave.<\/p>\n
Eventually three security guards arrived and, after trying to plea their case with the guards to no avail, the girls left.<\/p>\n
Since CHMA first spoke with Sandra and Megan, they\u2019ve had two letters and a phone call from mall staff and contractors.<\/p>\n
Dealing with the outfall of the incident has been hard to manage, says Sandra.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot has happened,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s quite overwhelming for me, because I\u2019m also working and studying at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the things that happened is related to CHMA\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n
A woman who identified herself as the \u201cwhite girl\u201d in the story contacted CHMA on September 20 to relay her perspective of events as they unfolded.<\/p>\n
Brandy Dobson says Sandra and Megan were actually seated in the food court area for longer than they claimed, and that the security guards did not approach her to ask what had happened, but rather to ask her to stop recording with her phone. Brandy wasn\u2019t recording, and so the request was moot.<\/p>\n
Brandy says she herself has since been asked to leave the Champlain Mall\u2019s main food court area, and feels strongly that the incident with Sandra and Megan was not racially motivated, but instead a result of COVID rules enforcement.<\/p>\n
Sandra says that although her memories might be a bit blurry in terms of the exact timing of the incident, she and her friend Megan are both very confident that the pair did not break the mall\u2019s rules, which were posted everywhere.<\/p>\n
And the mall\u2019s manager, Brian MacMullin, has confirmed that they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In a phone call from MacMullin to Sandra and Megan lat week, the manager told them he had investigated the incident by speaking with staff and looking at security camera footage. He acknowledged that they did not break the 30-minute rule, and also that they did have a drink purchased at the food court.<\/p>\n
MacMullin acknowledged that the enforcement of the policy was too strong and took \u2018full responsibility\u2019 for the incident. He said the mall will be changing its policy and no longer asking contract staff to enforce seating protocols in the food court. Instead, they will rely on signage and the good will of customers to follow the rules.<\/p>\n
MacMullin also told Sandra and Megan that in their investigation the mall didn\u2019t determine any \u201cracism\u201d to be involved, though they acknowledged \u201cpoor judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra and Megan feel very strongly that this was an incident of racial discrimination. They say the staff person involved told them at one point, \u201cwith all this COVID stuff happening, we can\u2019t have you sitting here.\u201d In the context of the moment, with a white person sitting nearby in what they perceived to be the same situation as themselves, they came to the obvious conclusion: their race was the issue.<\/p>\n
In their conversation with Brian MacMullin, Sandra and Megan asked for an apology from the staff person involved. Shortly thereafter they received an apology letter from the cleaning company that employs the person. The letter said the company, GDI Integrated Facility Services, had disciplined the employee in question and that its entire Champlain Mall staff had reviewed and signed off on a respect in the workplace policy.<\/p>\n
Probably more importantly, the company\u2019s workers will no longer be responsible for monitoring the mall\u2019s 30-minute seating limit, as had previously been the case.<\/p>\n
In their apology letter, the mall also offered the girls some gift cards, which Sandra and Megan declined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt like it wasn\u2019t in line with my moral values,\u201d says Sandra. She says that in a letter to the mall, the two woman said, \u201calthough we appreciate your offer, we believe that this issue is bigger than money, as racism is an issue that can\u2019t be settled on monetary benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra says she doesn\u2019t want to go back to the mall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot bring ourselves to dine in a facility that discriminated against us and kicked us out when we weren\u2019t breaking any rules. It\u2019s hard to enter a place that considers you as a great enough threat to escort you out with a full team of security, just simply based on your race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra is now in touch with Mount Allison\u2019s\u00a0Anti-Racism Education and Response Team.<\/a>\u00a0She is unsure of how things will move forward, and trying to take her time.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m not really sure how to really respond to something like this,\u201d she says. \u201cSo that\u2019s why I\u2019m seeking some advice and guidance on what the next steps would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really hard process,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a balance of trying to get justice and taking care of myself at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The management of the Champlain Mall has acknowledged that two students who were kicked out of the food court on September 12th were not in violation of the mall\u2019s COVID-inspired seating protocols, and has apologized for the incident. CHMA first reported the story\u00a0of Sandra and Megan (not the students\u2019 real names) on September 17, 2020.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":12129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,218,219],"tags":[],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12127"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=12127"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=12127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}