Editorial

Opinion: What will it take to protect retail and service workers from increasing violence?

Clint Mahlman

Clint Mahlman: Society needs to assure that all people who work to serve others must be safe from physical assault, verbal assaults and threats of violence

For years, retail and service workers in British Columbia have suffered increasing acts of violence from stabbings, needle sticks, attacks with weapons, punching, spitting, threats of harm and death, and abhorrent verbal abuse. Yet, what will it take for politicians, crown prosecutors and justice officials to take the same protective action against violence and abuse of retail and service workers as they are quick to implement for other workers in society?

Last year, for example, London Drugs experienced an 11 per cent increase in violence toward retail workers, which included physical assault, threatening behaviours and verbal abuse, and this high level of incidents is only increasing across Western Canada. This is one of the reasons London Drugs helped co-found and I chair the Save our Street Coalition, to bring attention to these issues that are impacting the safety of our urban centres.

Recently, former federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino requested “protective zones” for MPs’ offices against a rising tide of threatening behaviour. Under his plan, anyone who intimidated or harassed people within the buffer zone would be subject to harsher criminal penalties, including jail time.

In February 2024, B.C. Crown prosecutors requested the province move one of its busiest provincial courts out of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside after a prosecutor was hospitalized. The Crown prosecutor, who was accompanied by a female escort through a program called safe walk, “suffered a significant injury” during an assault. The B.C. Ambulance Service now receive a police escort when responding to calls in the Pandora Block of homeless camps in Victoria after paramedics were swarmed and attacked while trying to save a life.

When car theft escalated in Ontario and Quebec, a National Task Force was quickly created and provided significant funding. Yet retail organizations have been calling for action against organized retail crime groups and for the protection of retail workers, who have lived through a steady and demoralizing increase in violence and as well as retail theft. It may be that these often violent incidents happen behind four walls, but it appears governments assign more value on cars than retail and service workers.

Yet with the increase in retail violence and abuse so prevalent, why are the same politicians and crown prosecutors who want protection for themselves not demanding the same support and attention be given to retail and service workers?

To be clear: Violence and threats against our first responders, our politicians and crown prosecutors, police and those in the justice system is unacceptable and must have heavy consequences under law for those who commit those offences. People must be afforded protection and society needs to assure that when people are working to serve others, they must be safe from physical assault, verbal assaults and threats of violence.

Retail employers are left to spend millions of dollars each year in protective measures, additional security, and training to protect workers. However, there are no resources that are enough to overcome the apathy from politicians and the justice system to protect these workers from repeat offenders.

Retail and service workers are one of the largest employee groups of any type in B.C. and across Western Canada. We know firsthand how exhausted retail and service workers are, after demanding for years that politicians and the justice system take immediate action to protect them. Instead, businesses are shutting down across communities in our province and workers are moving to other careers, leading our once vibrant downtowns to become economic wastelands.

Retail and service industry workers will be taking notice of the provincial and federal parties that are looking to correct this imbalance of safety in our urban centres. As a country we must ensure safe working conditions and streets for all.

Clint Mahlman is president and COO of London Drugs and founder and chair of the Save our Streets Coalition.

Clint Mahlman
President and COO of London Drugs and Co-Founder, Save our Streets