Business is anything but usual during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Chansom Pantip/Adobe Stock)
Masking is currently required to access retail stores across Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Presently, every province has regulations in place that require customers to wear masks before entering stores to shop.
All such regulations include exemptions for those unable to mask owing to a disability. However, not all store masking policies include these exemptions.
The inability to mask for medical reasons raises important questions about the application of well-established principles of human rights law to the retail sector.
Accommodation a shared responsibility
Many human rights principles were developed around employment, including, for example, the employer’s duty to accommodate workers to the point of undue hardship.
Pandemic-era retail: No shoes, no shirt, no mask — no service?
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Pandemic-era retail: No shoes, no shirt, no mask — no service?
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The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last year and the subsequent calls for reform led Saskatoon police to recognize the importance of building trust in the community, Police Chief Troy Cooper says.
“One of the best ways that we do that is by reflecting the community,” he said Thursday after the monthly meeting of the Saskatoon board of police commissioners.
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Cooper said the fact police have a strategy and a commitment to diversity is a recognition police see recruitment as a way to maintain a positive relationship with the community.