A CHINESE RESTAURANT IN TORONTO HAS BEEN ORDERED TO COMPENSATE A BLACK MAN $10,000 FOR ASKING HIM AND HIS THREE FRIENDS TO PAY BEFORE RECEIVING THEIR MEAL. THE HUMAN RIGHTS RULING IS UNDER APPEAL.
NP3
TORONTO • The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ordered a Chinese restaurant in downtown Toronto to pay Emile Wickham — a black man — $10,000, after the 31-year-old and three black companions were asked to prepay for their meals.
It was May 3, 2014 — Wickham’s birthday — and to celebrate he and three friends had gone in search of food, settling on the Hong Shing Chinese Restaurant, an eatery on Dundas Street West. The place, offering “traditional Chinese” cuisine, has been around since 1997.
Wickham, then a sociology student at York University who also worked as an usher at the Ontario Legislative Assembly, found a table. He was met by a waiter who explained to the group that they would have to prepay. Wickham and his companions obliged, but doing so irked them. Wickham got up and canvassed the restaurant’s other patrons — none of whom were black — asking if any had had to prepay for their meals.
None had, a situation that compelled Wickham to file a human rights complaint one year later. The tribunal returned with its ruling on April 18, 2018.
“At its core racial profiling is a form of short hand that enables the perpetrator of the behaviour to assume certain facts, and ignore others,” tribunal vice chair Esi Codjoe wrote.
“In essence, the applicant was presumed to be a potential thief in waiting despite any evidence to that effect. His mere presence as a black man in a restaurant was presumed to be sufficient evidence of his presumed propensity to engage in criminal behaviour.”
A representative from Hong Shing did not attend the hearing, but the restaurant did file a defence with the tribunal, stating that due to its location in the city’s inner core it attracts a “transient” crowd; customers who “dine and dash” instead of paying their bill. (Hong Shing serves food from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m.) The restaurant claimed that it adopted a prepay policy several years ago, applying it to any customer that wasn’t considered a regular.
“I reject this argument for three reasons,” Codjoe wrote. “First, there is no evidence that the policy even exists as the respondent did not call any witnesses. Second, the group was not advised of any policy on the night of the incident even when they asked why they were being treated differently. Third, there is no evidence that any of the other patrons were 'regulars’; the other patrons were surprised about the policy.”
After making the rounds of the restaurant, Wickham asked the waiter why his group alone had been asked to prepay. A supervisor appeared, and asked if Wickham wanted a refund. The group got their money back and left, filled by what Wickham would describe to the tribunal as a sense of “hopelessness,” that was “exacerbated by the fact that they were aware that any displays of their frustration such as swearing would feed into stereotypes about black people."
At that moment, Wickham felt that “being black hurt,” Codjoe wrote in the ruling. “The applicant says that on some level he felt that being dressed in a York University sweatshirt should have made them immune from an incident such as this. However, he has come to realize that no matter how well dressed or educated or spoken you may be you are still just seen as a 'n----r’."
In addition to the payout to Wickham, the tribunal ordered Hong Shing to post an Ontario Human Rights Commission Code card in a prominent place inside the establishment.