VANCOUVER—The barrage of “hateful” comments came without warning.
On July 1, as B.C. moved to Step 3 of its COVID-19 restart plan, which included dropping its indoor mask mandate, Punk Rock Pastries — a Burnaby shop that specializes in pastries designed to “shock,” as well as “naughty” and “erotic” cakes and cookies — announced to customers it would still require them to wear masks “as we have immune compromised staff.”
“My shop, my rules,” owner Hollie Deville wrote on Instagram.
It wasn’t long after that post that the business was deluged with angry comments.
“We got messages, phone calls, emails,” she said. “We got really hateful reviews on Google — which we got taken down, thank goodness — and on our Facebook page. To me this was so sad.”
As more and more provinces ease pandemic restrictions, businesses are having to navigate the question of whether they continue with some form of mask-wearing policy for their staff and customers.
Businesses that have chosen to stick with a mask requirement are discovering they run the risk of being outed by various social media groups whose members disparage mask wearers as “brainwashed” and encourage blacklisting those businesses.
Amy Kaler, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta, says during the height of the pandemic, when people were feeling a lot of stress, there was a lot “pandemic-related rage.” She believes a significant minority of people who “got a taste of that excitement” — and find the us-versus-them mentality to be intoxicating — now want to keep it going.
“Logically, it makes absolutely no sense to blacklist businesses which ask customers to wear masks. Unless you live in a tiny community with only one store, if you don’t like a mask policy you’re free to go to another store which doesn’t request customers to wear masks,” she said.
“But emotionally, if you’re looking for a hit of self-righteousness or anger, you’re going to seize on anything to feed your desire for drama and excitement and feeling like you’re in the right and someone else is in the wrong.”
Deville says her store was the target of a naming and-shaming campaign by members of a private Facebook group called “Whitelist Blacklist BC Only” with more than 2,100 members.
The Star reached out to the group’s administrator for comment but received no response. The administrator’s personal Facebook page includes a post from June 26 stating: “1749 deaths as of today or 0.034% of the BC population and the govt destroyed the economy and lives.”
After CTV published a story recently about the group’s members targeting a cheese store in Vernon, B.C., that was still encouraging customers to wear masks, the administrator complained about biased media coverage, noting that the group supports as many businesses as it blacklists, according to screen shots shown to the Star by a member.
He also posted a message saying all new requests to join the group were being ignored and deleted, the screen shots show.A group with the same name recently opened an account on the Telegram messenger app.
There are several other private Facebook groups with similar names across the country. One of them is “Black Listed and White Listed Businesses Canada,” which has 6,500 members.
George Roche, the lead administrator of that group, told the Star he hasn’t worn a mask at all during the pandemic (“not ever once”) — he says the science isn’t there to back up wearing one — nor has he been vaccinated (“I won’t touch it”). He said his group consists of people who are “legitimately and reasonably defending their unalienable rights” and standing up to businesses that are not honouring mask exemptions.
“Citizens are clearly fed up with seeing their rights being trampled on due to the ignorance and in many cases the arrogance demonstrated by (store) operators,” he said.
That said, he insisted he does not condone those who publicly shame businesses or assign their own justice, saying it is “strictly prohibited.”
“I don’t think it’s an effective nor responsible approach to begin to start fights or publicly shame the operators,” he said.
“Don’t be vindictive. Don’t take matters into your hands.”
So what are the actual rules?
According to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website, “Private businesses have a right to refuse entry to customers not wearing a mask.” At the same time, “Employers have a duty to accommodate customers and workers who may not be able to wear masks for disability or other medical reasons.”
Punk Rock Pastries provided the Star with screen shots of some of the online messages they received earlier this month.
“Punk Rock Pastries needs a maskless flash mob,” one person wrote.
“Might as well change their name to “Subservient Conformist Pastries,” wrote another.
Deville, the store owner, said it was a no-brainer to keep their store’s mandatory mask-wearing policy in place. One of her employees is immunocompromised and unable to get vaccinated. Her son is also immunocompromised and she has asthma.
“All I’m doing is protecting my staff and protecting myself and my family. I totally want to throw the masks away and do a dance. But until it’s safe to do so I’m not doing it,” she said, adding her business offers curbside pickup and home delivery for those who can’t or don’t want to wear a mask.
Her shop only in business for 10 months at the start of the pandemic, Deville “worked my ass off” to stay afloat. To have strangers suddenly leaving one-star reviews and negative comments, she said, was just confounding.
“I don’t think they realize deep down we’re a family-run business. If my business shuts down, my family could be homeless. I won’t be able to pay my bills. How will I feed my child?”
Stephanie McNeil, co-owner of Unstoppable Comfort Wholesale Luxury Mattresses in Squamish, B.C., said her business was similarly named by the B.C. Facebook group back in May.
It started when a maskless woman came into her store with her kids and McNeil put on her mask. The woman said, “Oh, you don’t have to do that.” McNeil told the woman she was just following health protocols and mentioned she was also vaccinated. The woman asked McNeil when she was vaccinated. McNeil said she didn’t think that mattered. The woman left the store to put her children in the car and came back and said if McNeil had been vaccinated recently she couldn’t be around her due to vaccine shedding, the myth that the body of someone who is vaccinated can release viral particles from a vaccine and infect others. McNeil said she told the woman masks were required anyway and the woman left.
Later, the woman sent the store a “ridiculously long diatribe” about her rights and threatened to sue the store.
“My partner is an immunocompromised three-time cancer survivor. If I bring home COVID, he would die. I follow health protocols,” McNeil said.
“Then she blacklisted me on this group and I was harassed for weeks. I had to take my Facebook reviews off and my Google rating dropped … All I want to do is sell beds, follow protocol, protect my community and not get sick.”
Since B.C.’s COVID-19 restrictions were eased July 1, McNeil says her store’s policy is to leave it up to customers to choose whether or not they want to wear a mask.
Annie Dormuth, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s provincial affairs director for B.C. and Alberta, said small businesses have been through a lot during the pandemic and need all the support they can get.
“As they reopen and start to welcome customers and clients back in person, the last thing these businesses need is to be harassed or blacklisted,” she said.
Even though 82 per cent of businesses in B.C. are now fully opened, only 44 per cent have returned to normal sales levels, she said.
“It’s incredibly disheartening to hear these types of stories. This is a transition time. We all need to be respectful of one another and of course respect the decisions of the business owner … choosing to go their own pace.”
Whether it’s mandated or not, Lisa Haalstra of Belmont, Ont., said she and her family plan to continue wearing masks.
Haalstra lost her 44-year-old husband, Martin, to COVID-19 seven months ago. She hopes that those railing against masks understand that “there are thousands of people where the normal isn’t normal anymore.”
For Haalstra and her three kids, ages nine to 18, COVID-19 is a risk still, and they know the potential consequences. She hopes those choosing not to wear masks, or who disagree with others wearing masks, show some compassion for people like her who have experienced loss.
“I think we’ll get to the point where people will just be, ‘I’m sick of hearing about it,’” she said. “I totally understand. I mean, we’re a year and a half or so into it and if anybody gets it, I think families like mine understand because we’ve had such a big loss.”
Meanwhile, Deville, who describes herself as a bit of a hot head, said she has successfully appealed to Google to have many of the negative comments about her shop removed. Community members have rallied around her business, drowning out the negative comments with positive ones.
“The tide has turned,” she said. “These guys have had their five minutes of fame. It’s time to move on, don’t worry about the haters and keep baking.”
Article From: The Star
Author: By Douglas QuanVancouver Bureau, Kieran LeavittEdmonton Bureau
