Could companies that require their customers to come into their physical stores be guilty of discrimination? A human rights adjudicator seems to think so.
In Mills v Bell Mobility Inc, Canadian Human Rights Tribunal member Edward Lustig awarded $10,000 plus interest in compensation for Ms. Mills' pain and suffering as a result of being required to attend at a Bell store. The Tribunal found that a phone activation policy that required customers to physically present themselves in the company's stores, thereby endangering the health of some disabled persons, amounted to discrimination based on disability, in contravention of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Bell, one of the many companies that has such a policy, could not justify why disabled persons could not be accommodated through other methods of communication, such as Skype or Facetime.
Ms. Mills was disabled as a result of cancer in late 2013 and a stroke that nearly killed her in 2014. Ms. Mills was bedridden, extremely weak and partially paralyzed. Her physician has instructed her to stay home, unless an emergency required her to leave.
Her son had made attempts to activate her phone on her behalf, including an offer to come to the store with all Ms. Mills' identification documents, including a valid Power of Attorney. However, Bell stood by their in-person policy and took the position that that its activation standards policy was necessary in order to combat identity fraud.
Ms. Mills eventually relented and attended at a store to have her phone activated. She then commenced a human rights complaint. Interestingly, while she was ultimately successful in getting an award for pain and suffering, the CHRT member refused to find that Bell had committed reckless or wilful discrimination, citing its reputation as a company that "usually cares about its customers, including disabled Canadians," especially its efforts to combat mental health stigma.
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