Mall security guilty

Page 17

The International Village Mall, also known as Tinseltown, opened its doors in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in December 1999. The mall owners, Henderson Development Ltd, envisioned a high-end fashion and entertainment complex serving a clientele with considerable disposable income. But the low-income residents from the neighborhood also visited the mall to purchase cups of coffee, groceries and fast food.

From her balcony at the Vancouver Native housing complex directly across the street from the mall, Gladys Radek, a Vancouver-based Carrier grandmother, had a perfect view of Tinseltown.

While she sat on her deck doing beadwork, Radek observed the goings on at the mall and she began to notice some disturbing trends. She witnessed several incidents of security guard intimidation and outright harassment of Native patrons, she said.

Radek witnessed well-dressed Native shoppers being followed by security guards, while Caucasian shoppers went unnoticed. She observed disabled people in wheelchairs being asked to leave or even wheeled out of the mall by Securiguard Services Ltd., the group hired by Henderson to keep the premises safe.

"There were people that were not even allowed to enter the building, because they were considered dirty," Radek said.

She personally suffered harassment at the hands of the security guards on a number of occasions, she said, and after one humiliating incident on May 10, 2001 where she was stopped on her way to Starbucks, questioned and then asked to leave the mall, she decided to make a complaint to the B.C. Human Rights commission.

In her official complaint, Radek accused Henderson Development and Securiguard Services of denying her access to the facilities because of her race, color and disability. Radek has a prosthetic leg and walks with a limp. She further claimed that her treatment was part of a larger pattern of discrimination against Native people and the disabled.

Evidence at a tribunal revealed a written policy, drafted by Securiguard and Henderson, known as the "site post orders." The policy outlined the reasons why people should be removed from the mall, including ripped or dirty clothing, red eyes or bad body odor.

In the preamble to the orders, "borderline suspicious" shoppers were to be followed and "suspicious" people were to be removed.

"They were stereotyping Aboriginal people and disabled people, and we all seemed to fit into the one category. We were either borderline suspicious, suspicious or we were criminals," said Gladys Radek in an interview after the July 13 decision where the tribunal ruled in her favor.

Radek was awarded $15,000 in damages, the largest ever in Canada for injury to dignity in a systemic discrimination case.

Witnesses at the tribunal, 17 in all, testified they had been harassed by security, though they did not fit into the "site post order" criteria for ejection. Tribunal member Lindsay Lyster concluded that the implementation of the written and unwritten policies were based on stereotypes of disabled and Aboriginal people. Lyster said the "vagueness and room for interpretation" in the preamble of the orders made "the operation for unconscious stereotypes all the more significant."

The security guards suffered from a lack of sufficient training and knowledge on issues related to race, and physical and mental disabilities, said Lyster. Evidence also indicated the guards were generally unaware of the right of way through the mall permiting all members of the public to pass through.

In an interview following the decision, Radek's legal counsel, Tim Timberg, concluded that, "The significance of this case is that we have proven that a pattern of systemic discrimination existed over a five-year period in Vancouver, in present-day Canadian society."

"It is a sad set of facts that we are celebrating this case in 2005," he said.

The respondents are now on a form of probation for six months to ensure a new poicy at the mall is implemented.

Lyster directed Henderson and Securiguard to consult with Radek and Timberg in making the policy changes and suggested they also consult with community members as part of the effort to put an end to the discrimination.

But Radek said it is not over yet. While Securiguard was replaced halfway through the tribunal, she is not confident the necessary changes have been made up to this point.

"We still have to go over the policy with them and make sure the guards are not continuing to treat people with prejudice, " Radek said.

The biggest victory for Radek is that her grandchildren will have the knowledge and tools to use their voices and stand up against injustice.

"I made a voice for all of them, not just one or two," she said.