Canadian Tire review: Customer treatment

Good Day,

My name is Lyle Blomquist and I would describe myself as a loyal Canadian Tire Customer who has been visiting Canadian Tire stores for near thirty years. I currently reside in Kamloops BC and frequent both Canadian Tire locations in my community. If I am away and need products I turn to Canadian Tire when possible. I would consider my shopping experiences normally quite pleasant and I usually end up leaving your stores with more than I needed when I arrived.

Pardon the pun, but let me share the [censored] in the proverbial [censored] sandwich. I attended my neighbourhood Canadian Tire store yesterday October 2nd, 2023 in the later afternoon. Very important to this story is that I have a medical condition called IBS. If not familiar with this condition, to briefly explain how it affects my life. At any given time I may have a very sudden, uncontrollable and emergent need to use a washroom. While in my neighbourhood Canadian Tire store this very need arose. I made my way to customer service to request access to washroom facilities.

I was denied access by the young lady working the customer service area. I don’t blame her at all, I am sure she was just doing her job as directed and following a policy. However, I was not interested in arguing or bringing unnecessary attention to myself or disclose the reason my situation was emergent. My condition is no one else’s business and not one I would like to openly share in the middle of a public space with people I do not know, nor need to know my medical condition. I politely explained I understood and I would be back for my items.

As I was leaving the store I lost control of my bowels and for lack of better words [censored] my pants. I was forced to exit your store, cross the parking lot and drive my vehicle in that condition. Hopefully very understandably on your part I found this horribly demeaning and that I was humiliated. I was incredibly disgusted that I was forced to be subject to such an indignity by a retailer I have been very loyal to for most of my life.

I did return to my neighbourhood Canadian Tire to continue with my shopping. Very noticeable was that I returned to the store in completely different clothing than I was in when I asked for access to the washroom. Any employee that was present when I requested access to the washroom inevitably would have noticed and been able to come to the accurate conclusion that I had [censored] myself and came back in different clothing. This situation was extremely humiliating, dehumanizing and totally avoidable.

I didn’t want this situation to happen to anyone else ever again. So after completing my purchase I requested that I speak to a manager. The only complaint I have with the young lady working Customer Service was her unnecessary comment “ Uh oh. Who is unhappy now?” If I wasn’t humiliated enough, announcing this certainly didn’t help. A store manager did attend and I did have a conversation with him. I shared my experience and very openly shared my condition and how unfair it was to be humiliated, demeaned and suffer such an indignity. He did try to justify that there is training for staff and they are told to use judgement. My request was that maybe further training is necessary to prevent this situation from happening to someone else. I believe the conversation was well received after the noticeable shock on the managers face when I shared what happened and I do hope things will change and no one else will suffer like I did.

The trauma of this entire experience and an honest desire to prevent this from happening to another person is why I have reached out. It is also why I took time to research and provide information to people of importance to hopefully help my cause.

I did review Canadian Tire Code of Conduct and would like to refer to Commitment 1 from that policy – We treat others as we would like to be treated. TREATING OUR CUSTOMERS RIGHT CTC values the trust our customers and Dealers have placed in CTC. Employees must undertake their activities in a customer-centric manner and strive to provide exceptional service. Customer complaints will be investigated promptly. Also in commitment 1 Employees are expected to treat others with respect and professionalism. Harassment, including sexual harassment, is a form of discrimination. Harassment means any conduct, comment or gesture that is inappropriate and likely to: Reasonably cause offence or humiliation to any employee. I want to share that in my instance this commitment was failed horribly and now knowing this is a breach of Canadian Tire code of conduct I only think it fair to bring that forward.

That trauma not only led me to review Canadian Tire policy, but also Human Rights law and Canadian Charter of rights and Freedoms. Unfortunately but not unexpected, these huge governing laws were also grossly violated. Please let me share excerpts from these documents. Found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Access to water and sanitation are recognized by the United Nations as human rights – fundamental to everyone’s health, dignity and prosperity. A human rights perspective interprets humiliation as a form of violence that constitutes a violation of an individual’s rights and dignity. I don’t imagine I have to explain that I obviously feel these basic human rights were breached.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms describes mistreatment as torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Quite obviously I feel my rights were breached. Further examination of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms led me to Article 5 – Freedom from Torture or Cruel Treatment which states - No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This Article builds upon the “security of person” discussion in which human beings cannot cause each other extreme harm. Article 5 goes into more depth, qualifying such treatments as “torture,” “cruel,” “inhuman,” or “degrading.” To be “inhuman” is to forfeit the qualities that make you a human. In the context of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these qualities include “reason and conscience,” though empathy could also be included. Subjecting someone to torture shows a complete lack of reason, conscience, and empathy. Similarly, “degrading treatment” includes any actions that demean another. These treatments and punishments don’t necessarily need to be physical, either. Being psychologically degrading or cruel are just as much of a violation of human rights.

To complete the proverbial [censored] sandwich I want to express again that I have been a very loyal Canadian Tire customer, that I quite obviously suffered great trauma from this experience to go to the extent that I have and that hopefully Canadian Tire as an organization will make it right again. Please use my experience to make sure this never happens to anyone again. Please don’t disregard my email, I am expecting a reply and to hear how my experience will make change for others. It is very unfortunate that this happened to me, but please use it as a catalyst for change, be an example for other retailers and use my experience to train employees so this doesn’t have to happen again. I look forward to your reply.

Respectfully,

Lyle Blomquist

If you can do anything, do it with Pride, Passion and Purpose and leave it better than how you found it.