The father of an Indigenous teenager is speaking out after his daughter was restrained by security guards in what he says is a clear case of racial profiling.
Sino General says his 16-year-old daughter was with two friends at Guildford Town Centre in Surrey Tuesday evening when security guards singled her out, accused her of stealing, and wrestled her to the ground.
“They looked in her bag, pointed her out — ‘You’re the one stealing. You’re stealing in Victoria’s Secret.’ That’s where it’s frustrating because when she offered her bag and opened it like, ‘Look, I ain’t got nothing,’ they still tackled her,” he said.
General says there is no question this is related to racial profiling.
“Her, with her friends, they were non-native,” he said. “They were European descent, weren’t even held.”
Video obtained by CityNews shows General’s daughter being surrounded by several Paladin security guards and forced to the ground. One of the guards appears to put a knee on her.
“Only thing she could do was scream out of frustration because she had so many people holding her. And just very upset, even in the car ride back, she was very upset, she wasn’t happy with the way she was treated, just wanted justice or something. She didn’t know what else to do. She never experienced this before,” General said.
“It’s a new element to her life that isn’t very good. Is she going to go to any mall now and feel safe to shop? Or is she going to get tackled anytime she walks around somewhere?”
General’s coworker Danielle Dunlop — an Indigenous woman — says she felt emotional watching what happened to his daughter, because similar things have happened to her and other Indigenous people.
“This is happening a lot to the Indigenous brothers and sisters out there, and it’s not right,” Dunlop said.
“And I’m sure it’s happening for other people as well, but it seems to be more so, especially in the more populated areas, to the Indigenous people. It hurts, I’m tired of hearing about it, and it needs to stop.”
Paladin Security president Chad Kalyk tells CityNews in a statement that it’s aware of the incident and is working with Surrey Police on the events leading up to what’s seen in the video, adding it’s conducting an internal investigation to ensure their team’s response “aligns with [the company’s] procedural expectations and training standards.”
The Surrey RCMP said in a statement that they responded to a report of an assault on a security guard just before 9 p.m. Tuesday.
“Police was advised that the suspect female was being detained by the mall security. Our officer attended and arrested the suspect female for assault,” the RCMP said in the statement.
“According to the mall security, the female allegedly spat toward a security guard and was subsequently detained. The suspect who is a youth was released at scene to their guardian.”
Guildford Town Centre has not responded to requests for comment.
General says he plans to pursue the matter further.
“We want to go through, get a lawyer, get a team, hold them accountable,” he said. “Civil, criminally if we can get the charges.”