Nova Scotia Board of Inquiry
Summary: The Nova Scotia Board of Inquiry issued a decision on remedy following its decision finding that Sobeys Group Inc. discriminated against Andrella David because of race and perceived source of income.
In May 2009, Andrella David entered the Sobeys store in Tantallon, Nova Scotia, to buy some ice cream. While waiting in line to pay for her purchase, she was approached by a Sobeys employee, Jennie Barnhill, who accused her of past thefts in the store. Ms. Barnhill said the store had captured these thefts on video surveillance cameras. Ms. Barnhill told Ms. David that if it happened again, Sobeys would press charges.
Ms. David immediately demanded to see the videotapes, and sought to persuade Ms. Barnhill that she was not the person they believed had committed theft in the store. Ms. Barnhill took Ms. David to the store office and attempted to locate the video footage. Ms. David testified that the woman in the fuzzy images on the videotape, whom Ms. Barnhill identified as the shoplifter, was darker skinned than her, smaller, fuller-faced, and had a different hairstyle. She told Ms. Barnhill that the only thing she and the alleged shoplifter on the videotape had in common was that "she is Black and I am Black. If you think that girl looks like me you must think all Black people look alike".
Ms. Barnhill told Ms. David that she was 100 percent sure that Ms. David was the shoplifter. Ms. David denied all allegations. Eventually, Ms. David left the store. Later she attempted to rectify the situation with Sobeys’ management at head office, but was told that Sobeys accepted Ms. Barnhill’s word over hers.
The Board of Inquiry found that Ms. Barnhill did not have sufficient information and evidence to identify the complainant as a past or current shoplifter at Sobeys. Ms. Barnhill only had two brief sightings of the alleged shoplifter. The quality of the videotape and the still pictures from the video were of such poor quality that it would be impossible to positively identify who the person was.
Sobeys chose to support Ms. Barnhill’s erroneous belief that Ms. David was a shoplifter even though it was unsubstantiated by evidence or the facts of this case. This was not reasonable in the circumstances.
In addition, during the course of discussions and accusations in the office while viewing the videotape, Ms. Barnhill accused Ms. David of shoplifting on "cheque day". There is no doubt that this was a common reference to the day on which government cheques are issued to those on social assistance and that Ms. Barnhill assumed that this was Ms. David’s source of income.
The Board of Adjudication found that Andrella David suffered harm because of the actions of a Sobeys employee and because of the company’s continuing refusal to admit that Ms. David was not a shoplifter and to apologize to her. Ms. David continues to suffer harm because she and her community were stereotyped and humiliated. She experienced stress, paranoia, shame and public embarrassment, and will continue to suffer ill effects regardless of any apology or compensation offered at this point. The real damage has been caused by the lack of acknowledgment and respect given to the complainant from May 2009 until now. This lack of acknowledgment exacerbated the harm of the discrimination.
The Board of Inquiry ordered Sobeys to issue an apology to Ms. David that confirms that Sobeys did not have evidence to support its allegation that Ms. David was a shoplifter on any date and that the actions of its employee were discriminatory and inappropriate.
The Board of Inquiry also ordered Sobeys to pay Ms. David $361.64 for lost wages, $200 for parking expenses, and $237.95 for transportation costs. It also ordered Sobeys to pay Ms. David $3,000 per year for the seven years during which it has maintained its false accusation and treatment of Ms. David as a shoplifter, for a total award for injury to dignity of $21,000.
Finally, the Board ordered Sobeys to provide human rights training, approved by the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, to all store management personnel in the province, and to report on the training providing names of all participants, dates, times and locations of training sessions, and a copy of all curriculum, brochures, guides and documentation.
The Board retained jurisdiction in order to deal with any issues of non-compliance which may arise...