Heiltsuk Nation and two of its members have settled a human rights complaint in B.C. against Canadian Tire and Blackbird Security, stemming from an incident of racial profiling in 2020.

Dawn Wilson and her father, Richard Wilson, along with officials from Blackbird Security, Canadian Tire Corporation, and the Coquitlam location store owner participated in a traditional Heiltsuk washing ceremony on Tuesday as part of the settlement agreement.

Dawn Wilson said the legal process was at times deflating, but repairing the harm done through Heiltsuk traditional law has helped her and her father feel lighter.

“It was a really tough journey,” she said.

“We have a really big family and we just look forward to spending time with them and not having something like this weighing us down anymore.”

In January 2020, Dawn Wilson and Richard Wilson were shopping at a Coquitlam location after purchasing new tires at the store’s auto department.

According to the settlement agreement, a Blackbird security guard hired as a third-party contractor, searched Richard Wilson’s backpack in front of other shoppers while he was paying for his items.

The documents say Dawn Wilson complained to a Canadian Tire employee, who responded to her with comments that stereotyped First Nations people as someone who “begs and steals.”

The settlement includes undisclosed monetary compensation, which Dawn Wilson said will be donated in part to the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs for a study on the racial profiling of Indigenous shoppers.

“There wasn’t a lot of information or studies for us to lean on, or our lawyers,” said Dawn Wilson.

“So it’s really important for us that there is more data because this isn’t the first and won’t be the last time this has happened, so it was just important that this wasn’t just about us, it was about anyone coming after us.”

Heiltsuk washing ceremony

The traditional washing ceremony was held on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, but is typically conducted in Heiltsuk Nation’s big house in Bella Bella.

Marilyn Slett, elected chief of Heiltsuk Nation, said it was important for the Heiltsuk urban community to see the ceremony.

“It was special to be able to have it down here … it’s a symbolic ceremony to address and wash away any distress and trauma that you may have had,” said Slett.

“So to be able to do that here in Vancouver with our urban members here witnessing and validating the ceremony … I’m so happy that Richard and Dawn were supported so much.”

It’s the third human rights complaint for discrimination supported by Heiltsuk Nation that’s been brought forward by its members.

In 2021, Sharif Mohammed Bhamji said a bank teller denied him service and called the police on him while he was trying to open a bank account. TD Bank executives participated in a washing ceremony following the incident.

In 2019, Maxwell Johnson, then 56, was detained in Vancouver while trying to open his 12-year-old granddaughter’s first bank account with the Bank of Montreal.

Bank executives participated in a washing ceremony in Bella Bella after the incident, but the arresting officers from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) did not attend.

“We hope that the Vancouver Police Department would see this, and there still is some closure to be had … we hope that VPD will also, you know, see this and see the value of also participating,” Slett said.

VPD did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Representatives of Blackbird Security, Canadian Tire Corporation, and the owner of Canadian Tire’s Coquitlam store location apologized and were wrapped in blankets as part of the ceremony.

Maria Martin, a speaker for the washing ceremony, explained during the ceremony that blanketing the representatives allows them each to be strengthened and to move forward “in a good way with us all.”

Paul Droulis, owner of the Canadian Tire store location in Coquitlam, said he took responsibility for the discrimination against Dawn Wilson and Richard Wilson.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize,” Droulis said.

Dawn Wilson said she sincerely accepted the representatives’ apologies.

“You have to be very brave to come to something like this,” she said.

“I think it is just amazing that they’ve shown up and genuinely seem sorry that this happened but more that they don’t want it to happen again, and I think that’s really important.”