Racial profiling real, says former top N.S. official
Joins Halifax store protest
— Nova Scotia’s first black lieutenant-governor says the province is in a state of denial when it comes to racial profiling, saying she has often been the victim of “shopping while black” since she left her viceregal post four years ago.
Mayann Francis said Thursday she decided to speak out this week after Nova Scotia-based grocery chain Sobeys Inc. announced it will appeal a human rights inquiry decision that found one of its Halifax stores discriminated against a black customer.
Francis, who served as CEO of the human rights commission until she was appointed lieutenant-governor in 2006, says hearing about the case motivated her to attend a protest outside a Sobeys store and talk publicly about her experiences.
“It does not matter how successful you are, it still can happen to you,” Francis said in an interview. “It’s just so wrong and so hurtful and I know how I feel when I’m followed in the stores.
“Some might say they’re just being polite. No, they’re not. They’re stalking you. It becomes very uncomfortable.”
This has prompted her to avoid some merchants and be wary of what she is carrying.
Dolly Williams, a board member with the Congress of Black Women of Canada, said Francis’s disturbing story is all too familiar to her.
“If you’re in your old duds, they will come to you and say, ‘Are you sure this is the store you want to be in?’ Especially high-class stores. They have no respect for black women … because Nova Scotia is still rampant with racism.”
In the Sobeys case, a Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission inquiry determined last fall that staff at a store in Tantallon discriminated against Andrella David in May 2009 after falsely accusing her of being a repeat shoplifter.