After the recent incident at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, a court orders a Chinese restaurant in Toronto to pay $10K for racial profiling its customers.
The reported incident allegedly happened four years ago when Emile Wickham and three friends were instructed to prepay for their meals. It apparently happened at Hong Shing Chinese restaurant wherein the group met to celebrate a birthday dinner.
The incident was reported to the proper authorities, which eventually led the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to order the establishment to pay the said amount as compensation for what happened in 2014.
Describing The Incident
According to Wickham, the incident took place in May 2014 wherein the server immediately asked his group to make the payment. It might be common to encounter this kind of process if people place their orders at a fast-food establishment.
Presumably, this prompted him to verify with the employee if it was the restaurant's policy to request for prepayment. The server allegedly insisted that it was indeed a company policy.
Wickham then noticed that they were the only black customers who were there at the time. He asked other diners if they were also asked to do the same and confirmed that that was not the case. The group further noted that another staff member approached them and offered a refund to compensate for the incident.
Racism Continues To Exist
Based on the evidence presented to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, the Toronto-based Chinese restaurant violated the regional human rights code. Esi Codjoe, an adjudicator for the group, confirmed that the establishment has breached section 1 of the code, supposedly providing assurance that goods, services, and facilities exchanges are covered by equality.
It appears that the business and its servers made the presumption that Wickham and his friends might now pay for their meals because of their skin color.
"His mere presence as a Black man in a restaurant was presumed to be sufficient of his presume propensity to engage in criminal behavior," wrote Codjoe.
Chinese Restaurant Attempts To Explain
The human rights tribunal likewise confirmed that the Hong Shing provided a written response attempting to explain its actions. It pointed out past instances wherein some customers ate and left without paying their meals. Nevertheless, it's clear that racism was a big factor that night and the court order to compensate the victim a total of $10K still stands.
Wickham, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, noted that the incident has left a profound impact as he was not used to receiving a treatment like what he encountered four years ago. He recalled that the dinner was supposed to be memorable as it was supposed to be celebrating his birthday with a few close friends.
