This letter is addressed to the owner of this store, Fadi Hammoud 

This is a legal document. 

I am a long-term frequent customer at your store that spends hundreds of dollars a month there, on average, and is quite upset about an unfortunate incident that took place outside of your store on the afternoon of Sunday November 29, 2020, at around 13:00 or so, enough that it is difficult to imagine that I’ll come back to your store to spend any more money until some remedy is produced to rectify the situation. While you may hear a specific narrative from your employee, I feel it is necessary to present the perspective of the customer in the matter, in order to get a proper understanding of what it is that actually happened and understand how best to move forward. 

So, I entered your store some time around 12:30 or so, did some shopping and ultimately went through the checkout at 12:54:41 according to the receipt: 

I then took my food, put it in the cart and went to an out of the way place past the checkout line to pack my school bag, as I was walking home with my purchase, as I always do.  

It wasn’t until I got past the esso on tecumseh and near the animal hospital (moving east) that I noticed that two menacing, angry men were yelling at me and following me home. What was this about? 

Well, something that my mother taught me when I was very young was that when angry men are yelling at you and following you, you should never stop to talk to them, regardless of the circumstance, and no matter who they are. Ever. Period. No exceptions. Civilized people just don’t yell at other people to stop as they’re walking down the street. It doesn’t happen. There's just no context. Only dangerous people do that. So, the thought running through my mind was that if these people are following me home and yelling at me then they must be up to no good and I should do everything I can to get as far away from them as possible – and that is what I did, I kept walking, but at a brisker pace, hoping they’d stop following me. 

I simply didn’t know who these idiots were, and I simply didn’t want to find out. It was clear after a few moments that they thought I stole something, but nothing else was. Were they some kind of a vigilante group? Some kind of a gang? A self-appointed religious police? Transphobes? Rapists? I had no idea – all I know is that there were some angry men yelling at me to stop, and I was hardly going to listen to them. 

So, what was going through my mind at that point was fear for my personal safety, because some thugs were chasing me down the street and I didn’t understand why or what they wanted. I yelled at them to fuck off and threatened to call the police if they continued to follow me home, and have them charged with harassment. This is the legal definition of harassment: 

No person shall, without lawful authority and knowing that another person is harassed or recklessly as to whether the other person is harassed, engage in conduct referred to in subsection (2) that causes that other person reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them. 

(2) The conduct mentioned in subsection (1) consists of 

(a) repeatedly following from place to place the other person or anyone known to them; (b) repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them; (c) besetting or watching the dwelling-house, or place where the other person, or anyone known to them, resides, works, carries on business or happens to be; or (d) engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person or any member of their family. 

I think it is rather obvious that that is what I was experiencing. 

Eventually, it became clear that one of these buffoons was that manager from the store I was in and wanted me to show him a receipt, but that knowledge didn’t help the situation much. If I was in the store, querying me for proof of purchase may be harassing and unnecessary, but I'd probably comply, as I grumbled. Chasing me down the street like that just opens up questions about his motives. Was he going to beat me up when he caught me? Steal my food and claim I didn’t pay for it? When you chase people down the street yelling at them, these are valid and reasonable concerns to have – these kinds of violent altercations are, in truth, commonplace. I simply didn’t know what he was going to do, but he seemed unstable, so I just kept walking... 

And, then *he* calls the cops. Bafflingly. Not only does he follow me home from the store in a menacing and disturbing way, and yell threatening things at me as I'm walking, but he calls the cops in to document the incident, creating evidence that the harassment occurred. Remarkable. A police report or occurrence is very strong evidence to utilize in a civil case in a court of law. So, I decided I would rather wait for the officer to arrive to discuss the issue, to ensure this erratic person didn’t try anything violent or dishonest. 

At this point, it is clear that this manager is discriminating against me in addition to harassing me, and the harassment is a consequence of the discrimination. I know I paid for this food. I know I have a receipt, too. So, what is he going to say when the cops arrive? That he saw me steal something I paid for and have a receipt for? That's obviously absurd – he didn’t see me steal anything, because I didn’t steal anything. Rather, he must have judged me by my appearance, decided I look like somebody that would steal something and then chased me down the street yelling at me, because he was convinced that he found one of “those people” that have been stealing from the store (and, I know nothing of the extent of your losses due to theft, I just hardly think you should take out your losses on your paying customers. That's not going to help.). 

When the officer arrived, I showed him my receipt. He cross-referenced the food in the bag with the food on the receipt, concluded it didn’t appear that a theft had taken place and allowed me to go. I then asked the manager for his name (yusuf), indicated that legal action would be taken and went home to put my groceries away. 

Yusuf just kept saying over and over again that he asked me for a receipt and didn’t understand why I wouldn’t stop, but I hope that the perspective presented here explains why that perception is preposterous. Yusuf seemed to think that, so long as he was sure I stole something from his store, it was perfectly alright to case me down the street like a maniac. In his mind, my refusal to stop was proof of guilt, rather than reasonable self-preservation in the face of a scary, strange man chasing me down the street and yelling at me. Even if I did steal something, the fact of the matter is that private citizens simply don’t chase people down the street like that in a society governed by the rule of law. What private citizens do in a civilized society is check the video, call the cops and identity the suspect – and my innocence in the matter is why you check the video first, rather than try to take the law into your own hands. The kind of vigilantism that yusuf engaged in on sunday is barbaric and has no place in a civilized society. The fact that he didn’t understand that – that he thought it was perfectly ok to chase me down the street because he thought I stole something – is absolutely mind-boggling, and frightening in it’s own right.  

As mentioned, I am a regular customer in your store. I spend hundreds of dollars there every month. Yet, I will no longer feel safe shopping there unless three conditions are met: 

1) I want an apology.
2) I want some disciplinary action and retraining for yusuf. He can’t be chasing people down the street and yelling at them, like that. That's preposterous.
3) Given that I was falsely accused of theft, I think a voucher at your store is appropriate. And, given that the harassment is rooted in discrimination, I think the voucher should be substantive. I am requesting a voucher of $10,000 to be spent exclusively at your store. 

I am giving you until December 20, 2020 to respond to my request. Should no response follow, civil action will be taken against your store that accuses you of discrimination and harassment, at a much larger sum than $10,000. Please retain all existing video of the event for legal purposes – and realize you will be accused of destroying evidence, to your own detriment, if you do not. 

Jessica Murray – 5199161358, death.to.koalas@gmail.com