A woman who uses an electric scooter says she was discriminated against at a Montreal-area Tim Hortons after she was asked to leave the store.
The reason, Sharon Linehan says, is that the coffee shop manager considered her electric chair “a fire hazard.”
“I can't walk into the store. I can't stand up for more than 10 seconds at a time. So how does he want me to walk in there?” Linehan told CTV Montreal.
The incident unfolded Sunday night at a Tim Hortons in Chateauguay, Que., that Linehan often visits with her husband and friends.
After Linehan sat down, she says an employee came over to her table and said she’d have to leave because her scooter “took up too much room” and would make fire evacuation difficult.
“I said, ‘There’s three people in the restaurant,’” Linehan recalled.
Tim Hortons told CTV Montreal that the incident was unfortunate and not part of the company’s policy. The company added that the restaurant owner is working to ensure that the problem doesn’t happen again.
Still, Linehan and her husband, Norman Page, say that they deserve an apology.
“I told them before we left, once I step out of here Tim Hortons is dead as far as I’m concerned. I won't step back in,” he said.
A disability rights advocate says the incident was likely isolated.
“I think that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” said Chris Kennedy, a disability right advocate with MEMO Quebec.
“There’s not a single company that’s going to want to look like anti-people with disabilities.”
With files from CTV Montreal
