Blind woman angry over Wal-Mart hassles
Woman angry over hassles at local Wal-Mart, but store says guide dog wasn't wearing service vest
Brendan Kennedy
Staff Reporter
Judy Germain has grown tired of the unwelcome "greeting" she says she and her guide dog receive at her local Wal-Mart.
Germain, who is blind, uses Mr. Jones – a yellow Labrador and golden retriever cross – to get around. She says she is rarely troubled when entering buildings that prohibit other animals, except when she shops at the Wal-Mart store at Islington Ave. and Highway 401.
"It's 2010 – this shouldn't be happening," says Germain, 49. "It's degrading, it's frustrating, and it's embarrassing."
The store says it's simply a misunderstanding, and that Mr. Jones was not immediately recognized as a service dog because he was not wearing a service-dog vest.
In Canada, guide dogs are allowed anywhere people are.
Germain says the store's trademark greeters have stopped her and Mr. Jones eight or nine times in the last year, telling her they are not allowed into the store. On every occasion, Germain says, she speaks to a manager who allows her to continue shopping. When it happened again on Wednesday, Germain says she had had enough.
Officers at Toronto Police's 23 Division confirmed Thursday that Germain filed a report of Wednesday's incident with them.
Store manager Hamid Chaudry said that, since the first incident with Germain last year, the store's staff have been trained to recognize guide dogs.
"When we questioned the greeter last night, he did not recognize (Mr. Jones) as a guide dog," Chaudry said.
"The dog was not fully equipped as a guide dog should be."
Chaudry says Germain has been stopped two or three times.
Germain, 49, was born with impaired vision. She says she was wearing a jacket with a Guide Dogs Canada logo Wednesday night, and was using a guide-dog harness to walk Mr. Jones.
Andrew Pelletier, vice-president of Wal-Mart Canada's corporate affairs, said the company's head office will review the incident.
"Anybody who knows Wal-Mart knows that we're committed to providing a welcome shopping environment to all of our clients."
He said Wal-Mart is a large employer of people with special needs and he has never heard of any incident of discrimination involving service dogs.
Germain says she just wants to shop without worrying if she's going to be harassed when she walks through the front doors.
"It's frustrating to walk into Wal-Mart and wonder, `Is it going to happen this time?'"
Anyone found guilty of discriminating against the use of a specially trained guide dog in a public place can be fined a maximum of $5,000.
