The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is calling for the immediate firing of a Saskatoon Real Canadian Superstore employee for alleged racist behaviour.
In a press release sent out late Thursday afternoon, the FSIN alleges two Indigenous women were treated with racist attitudes by a cashier at the Confederation-area store.
The women are named as sisters Crystal Stone and Odera Wapass.
“We believe that any employee who treats First Nations customers and behaves in a racist manner should be terminated immediately with cause for their actions,” FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron says in the released statement. “Is this the way they treat all of their First Nations customers?”
The release also says a non-Indigenous woman, Wanda Friesen, came to the aid of the two sisters.
According to a Facebook post by Crystal Stone, the two sisters were in line at Real Canadian Superstore when a female cashier asked if they had enough money to pay for their purchase. The post also says the cashier demanded that she scan the larger items in the cart first rather than the smaller ones that had been already placed. Stone says when asked the cashier said she always asks customers if they have enough to pay for their items but didn’t notice that anyone else in line was asked the same question. Along with her sister and Friesen, they later complained to the store manager about their treatment. The post says the incident happened on June 7.
In emailed statement, Loblaw Companies Limited, the parent company of Real Canadian Superstore, responds, “Our goal is to ensure no customer ever feels they were treated differently in our stores because of their ethnic background. We sincerely regret this did not happen in this case. We are taking this complaint seriously and have reached out to the customers directly to discuss the incident.
We are committed to diversity and to being inclusive, equitable and accessible in all our interactions with each other and with our customers. To that end, the company has taken recent steps to provide additional training and education to our entire network of stores about racial profiling, unconscious bias, and the need to interact with all customers equally and with respect.”
(Photo: Real Canadian Superstore, courtesy of http://www.loblaw.ca)