A public apology is doing little to ease the tension between an aboriginal man and management of a shopping mall in Edmonton.
Gary Moostoos, a community outreach worker at Boyle Street Community Services, an inner-city Edmonton agency that assists the homeless, says he was treated unfairly while visiting the City Centre Mall on Monday.
Moostoos says he was eating in the food court when two security guards approached him. They told him that he looked like someone else who had been banned from the mall and asked him to give the names of the people he associates with.
Moostoos told CTV News he was so shocked by what, to him, seemed like a clear example of racial profiling that he started recording the incident on his phone.
He says the incident was representative of the kinds of incident he hears about all the time from his clients.
"I’ve had so many people come through my office door here, who have gone through the same scenario,” Moostoos told CTV Edmonton. “They poke at you and poke at you. First, it’s the identities, thinking you’re someone else, and then if it’s not, then they get reactive.”
After several minutes arguing with mall security, Moostoos was eventually asked to leave and told he would be banned from the mall for six months.
When the story emerged this week, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson told reporters he was concerned and disappointed to hear of anyone in the city experiencing discrimination based on who they might look like.
He asked the mall to review the incident and had his staff offer the mall materials about enhancing the cultural sensitivity of frontline workers.
Now, mall management are admitting they were wrong. They have decided to lift the six-month ban on Moostoos, but would not say if the security guards involved will be disciplined over the incident.
Mall management members also want to meet Moostoos face to face, to discuss the incident. But Moostoos says he isn't ready. He says he's realized there's no quick fix to what's become the epitome of a much broader issue.
