Local accessibility advocate Bill Conway alleges he was denied service at the Sechelt A&W when he entered with his Seeing Eye dog on Aug. 23, but the store denies Conway's claim and says the issue was a simple misunderstanding.
"I went in with a friend and we walked up to the counter and a young lady at the counter informed me I would have to take my dog outside because dogs were not allowed in the store. I told her that was against the Guide and Assisted Dog Act, but she said no dogs were allowed because someone might be allergic," Conway said.
He then asked if anyone in the store was allergic to dogs and got no response. His friend informed him no other patrons were in the establishment.
"So I asked to see the manager but they said he was not available and they gave me his phone number," Conway said.
He said he left the A&W without being served and proceeded to call the owner of the store, Johnny Lam. He said Lam never returned any of his phone calls.
Lam said he never received a phone call from Conway, and Susan Senecal, vice president of operations at A&W Canada, said the entire incident unfolded differently.
"My understanding is that the guide dog wasn't identified as such. It didn't have any identification on it, and at first glance it didn't look like a guide dog," Senecal said. "The reason dogs aren't allowed is there are provincial regulations in terms of the health code. Animals are not allowed in establishments that serve food, and that includes grocery stores and restaurants and so on. So the staff member had pointed this out to the customer."
She said that once the staff member was told Conway's dog was a Seeing Eye dog, the staff member apologized and invited Conway into the store and proceeded to serve him.
"At that point it sounded like the customer thought he should be getting a free meal because of the fact that they had talked about the dog in the first place," she said.
"So the staff member did try to get in touch with the owner because she wasn't quite comfortable just giving the free meal, and was not able to get in touch with the manager. In the meantime, I think the customer had left. So that's kind of where it is from our standpoint."
Lam confirmed the story from head office adding that he didn't have any way to contact Conway after the staff member advised him of the incident.
"As a result of this, we have reviewed the policies and procedures regarding guide and assistance dogs with our staff in Sechelt," Lam said. "We continue to welcome customers with guide dogs and assistance dogs to A&W restaurants across Canada, and hope that everyone will understand that this was the result of a simple but regretted mistake on the part of a staff member."
Conway says he wants an apology for the incident he views as an accessibility issue in Sechelt.
Lam said he plans to get in touch with Conway this week to offer that apology, but he noted staff also apologized when the incident occurred on Aug. 23.
"Everyone I've talked to at the restaurant has been really apologetic that the incident happened, but it sounds like there were just some communication issues as things unfolded and it didn't sound like it was very obvious that the customer had an impairment or that the dog was a service animal, and that's why the employee made the mistake in the first place," Senecal noted.
