Cdn_for_liberty
08-08-2010, 07:34 AM
A woman is planning to file a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario against a Scarborough restaurant after she was asked to leave when she brought her service dog to the buffet area.
Evelyn Snyder, who has spinal muscular atrophy, visited Imperial Buffet near Eglinton Ave. E and Warden Ave. Sunday afternoon along with her husband and a friend. She had a service dog with her, a two-and-a-half year old black Lab named Nova, who helps her with operating elevator buttons and other things she cannot do out of her muscle weakness.
“They put us at a table, and as soon as we started to get up to the buffet (with Nova), they said, ‘No, no, you can’t go there,’” said Snyder.
Snyder’s friend Leslie Carnagie said the manager showed them “a piece of paper (that said) ‘Due to board to health restrictions, service dogs are not allowed near the food; they must remain at the table.’”
Carnagie, who “did most of the yelling,” told the staff that this was discrimination, and her friend’s dog could not be left unattended.
“(The exchange) was hostile at best. . . It was kind of making a public spectacle of ourselves, which I normally don’t like to do, but I was trying to prove a point,” she said.
Finally, they were asked to leave the establishment. Snyder, who called the incident “humiliating,” said she has been to this particular restaurant last summer, and the presence of the dog in the buffet area has not been a problem.
When reached on Wednesday, Peyton Kong, the restaurant manager involved in the incident, said they implemented the policy after a customer complained to Toronto Public Health a few months ago about allergies after a dog was allowed in the restaurant. A health inspector later informed his colleague Sali Chen that they cannot allow any dogs in the food serving area.
“To balance human rights and food standards, TPH suggested that we let the guest in the seating area, but the working dog cannot go to the buffet area,” Kong said in Cantonese. “If the patron needs assistance, her companions or our employees can help them get food.”
Kong added that the paper he showed Carnagie was notes from the phone conversation Chen had with the health inspector.
Jim Chan, manager of public health’s Food Safety Program, however, said a service dog can be in the buffet area.
Under the Ontario Regulation 562 under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, the ban on animals in areas where food is served, sold, or for sale does not apply to “a service dog serving as a guide for a blind person or for a person with another medical disability who requires the use of a service dog.”
“That’s including the buffet line, which is a serving area,” Chan added.
Sharan Basran, legal counsel at the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, said the ban on service animals in food-serving areas is “a major misconception that particularly restaurants and people in the food industry often fight, and it’s wrong.”
Basran cited a December 2009 decision from the Human Rights of Tribunal of Ontario involving Chan’s Chinese Buffet and Penny Schussler, who has epilepsy and uses a service dog.
The decision reads, “the refusal to permit the applicant to use her service dog to serve herself at the buffet amounts to discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of a service” according to the Ontario Human Rights Code.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/844397--service-dog-banned-from-buffet-line?bn=1
"Human Rights" tribunal again promoting the counterfeit human right, which is equal results.
Also, the health regulators clearly threw the business under the bus by supporting this handicap lady. They've consulted with the business in regards to dealing with dogs and now they've changed their tune, acted like the business never consulted with them.
Evelyn Snyder, who has spinal muscular atrophy, visited Imperial Buffet near Eglinton Ave. E and Warden Ave. Sunday afternoon along with her husband and a friend. She had a service dog with her, a two-and-a-half year old black Lab named Nova, who helps her with operating elevator buttons and other things she cannot do out of her muscle weakness.
“They put us at a table, and as soon as we started to get up to the buffet (with Nova), they said, ‘No, no, you can’t go there,’” said Snyder.
Snyder’s friend Leslie Carnagie said the manager showed them “a piece of paper (that said) ‘Due to board to health restrictions, service dogs are not allowed near the food; they must remain at the table.’”
Carnagie, who “did most of the yelling,” told the staff that this was discrimination, and her friend’s dog could not be left unattended.
“(The exchange) was hostile at best. . . It was kind of making a public spectacle of ourselves, which I normally don’t like to do, but I was trying to prove a point,” she said.
Finally, they were asked to leave the establishment. Snyder, who called the incident “humiliating,” said she has been to this particular restaurant last summer, and the presence of the dog in the buffet area has not been a problem.
When reached on Wednesday, Peyton Kong, the restaurant manager involved in the incident, said they implemented the policy after a customer complained to Toronto Public Health a few months ago about allergies after a dog was allowed in the restaurant. A health inspector later informed his colleague Sali Chen that they cannot allow any dogs in the food serving area.
“To balance human rights and food standards, TPH suggested that we let the guest in the seating area, but the working dog cannot go to the buffet area,” Kong said in Cantonese. “If the patron needs assistance, her companions or our employees can help them get food.”
Kong added that the paper he showed Carnagie was notes from the phone conversation Chen had with the health inspector.
Jim Chan, manager of public health’s Food Safety Program, however, said a service dog can be in the buffet area.
Under the Ontario Regulation 562 under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, the ban on animals in areas where food is served, sold, or for sale does not apply to “a service dog serving as a guide for a blind person or for a person with another medical disability who requires the use of a service dog.”
“That’s including the buffet line, which is a serving area,” Chan added.
Sharan Basran, legal counsel at the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, said the ban on service animals in food-serving areas is “a major misconception that particularly restaurants and people in the food industry often fight, and it’s wrong.”
Basran cited a December 2009 decision from the Human Rights of Tribunal of Ontario involving Chan’s Chinese Buffet and Penny Schussler, who has epilepsy and uses a service dog.
The decision reads, “the refusal to permit the applicant to use her service dog to serve herself at the buffet amounts to discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of a service” according to the Ontario Human Rights Code.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/844397--service-dog-banned-from-buffet-line?bn=1
"Human Rights" tribunal again promoting the counterfeit human right, which is equal results.
Also, the health regulators clearly threw the business under the bus by supporting this handicap lady. They've consulted with the business in regards to dealing with dogs and now they've changed their tune, acted like the business never consulted with them.