A B.C. Human Rights Tribunal complaint against a Saanichton farmers market who refused entry to a woman without a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic was dismissed.
On September 25, 2020, the woman, only named as S.L. in tribunal documents, visited Michell’s Farm Market, claiming she had a disability-related barrier to wearing a mask, despite the market’s policy requiring all employees and members of the public to wear face covering.
The market said it explored alternatives to in-store mask-less shopping for those who said they were exempt, such as having someone else shop on the customers behalf, or let the customer shop prior to opening hours.
“My disability obstructs me from wearing a mask because the terror that I have experienced by having to be confronted with people asking me to put something restrictive on my face makes me suffer from excessive fear and anxiety, it causes panic, paralyzes me with nervousness, apprehension and fearfulness inside me,” S.L. told the tribunal.
Although she didn’t share the details of her disability , she explained that childhood trauma had “detrimental consequences” to her cognitive health.
She provided a doctor’s note and two letters from psychologists recommending that she be exempt from wearing a mask on a “work environment.”
The tribunal noted that to settle a dispute about whether human rights were infringed upon the basis that they have a disability, they must provide evidence of that disability to the tribunal.
“I do not consent to [the Market and the Market’s counsel] nor the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal or any other person’s who may be involved to disclose my information, interrogate me, or re-traumatize me during this process. This has been extremely difficult for me to discuss. I do not appreciate having to disclose my private medical information, nor have to justify myself of why I am unable to place a medical devise on my face, especially to complete strangers,” she submitted to the tribunal.
The tribunal member, Laila Said Alam, found that there is “no reasonable prospect S.L. will prove her psychological and cognitive impairment prevented her from complying with the market’s mask policy,” and on Feb. 23, the tribunal accepted the market’s application to dismiss the complaint.
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