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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Canadian Tire logo is displayed on a store in Ottawa on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Sean Kilpatrick<\/p>\n
The ceremony, held at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive, drew dozens to take part in the cultural healing process. Dawn Wilson thanked representatives of both companies for showing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wholeheartedly forgive everything that\u2019s been done and are so thankful that you are here in this beautiful way to let this go with us,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel lighter and I hope that you do too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
James Prescott, a vice president with Canadian Tire, called the incident \u201cdeeply regrettable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of everybody at Canadian Tire, we are deeply sorry for what happened,\u201d Prescott said.<\/p>\n
Store owner Paul Droulis said it was \u201cmy store, my responsibility, my embarrassment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize because that is not how we treat our clients, it\u2019s not how we treat our friends, it\u2019s now how we treat people,\u201d Droulis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Representatives of Canadian Tire and Blackbird Security were then wrapped in blankets and took part in a dance as part of the ceremony, circling the banquet hall floor to the rhythm of drums and singing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dawn Wilson said in an interview she\u2019s relieved the case has been settled and hopes it will help others avoid the same thing.<\/p>\n
The store itself admitted a former employee made derogatory comments when told about what happened, and Canadian Tire Corp. acknowledges it did not forward a complaint to the Coquitlam store for weeks \u2014 only doing so after the employee no longer worked there.<\/p>\n
The traditional Heiltsuk washing ceremony is a form of restorative justice that acknowledges the harm of racial profiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maria Martin with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council told those gathered that the \u201charm went beyond the moment\u201d of the confrontation at the store.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of a broader pattern of racial profiling and disrespect that Heiltsuk and other Indigenous people face in everyday life,\u201d she said. \u201cDawn and Richard brought a human rights complaint not just for themselves, but for all Heiltsuk and other Indigenous members who live with this indignity far too often.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of the settlement, Canadian Tire agreed to implement more training on Indigenous stereotypes and racial profiling, and review its complaint process to make sure it has distinct steps to address discrimination allegations.<\/p>\n
The settlement includes confidential financial compensation, a portion of which Dawn Wilson says she will donate to the Union of BC Indian Chiefs to commission a study into the problem of Indigenous consumer racial profiling in Canada.<\/p>\n
The store and the security company have agreed that any loss prevention measures will have objective, race-neutral criteria. They will implement training on discrimination and unconscious bias, and collect data on discrimination complaints.<\/p>\n
Dawn Wilson said she and her dad faced hurdles for years as they tried to get someone to listen to them about their complaint.<\/p>\n
She said it shows the need for wholesale change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a systemic issue, so we wanted systemic change. Something that\u2019s not just going to happen for my Dad and I, but for anybody coming after us, and that\u2019s what we feel like happened,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of different things that happened in the settlement, and it seems like it\u2019s a very holistic approach to tackle some of these really big issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair, who are members of the Heiltsuk Nation, were shopping at the store when a security guard publicly searched Richard Wilson\u2019s bag.<\/p>\n
When Dawn Wilson raised concerns, a store employee said his father \u201ctaught him the difference between an Indian and a native: an Indian comes from the reserve and begs and steals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The human rights complaint was scheduled to be heard in October.<\/p>\n
The washing ceremony Tuesday was based on an Indigenous concept \u201cto turn things around and make things right again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawn Wilson said the idea of the public ceremony is to validate what happened and physically let go of pain and hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018I\u2019m actually really happy that it\u2019s happening. I think it\u2019s amazing that Blackbird and Canadian Tire have agreed to this, and I wholeheartedly accept their apology,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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As part of the human rights complaint, the Heiltsuk Nation commissioned a report on consumer racial profiling, which in part called for more study of the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dawn Wilson said it\u2019s important some of the settlement money go to a larger study so there\u2019s more data for others to lean on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may not have as much support as we did from Heiltsuk Tribal Council, and we just want to make sure that they have something to help them with this, because it can be an incredibly harmful process when you\u2019re already feeling harmed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said they wanted to take as much pressure off complainants as possible to help them feel supported.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2013 The sounds of Indigenous drums and song bounced off the walls of an East Vancouver banquet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-681170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}