'It made me feel angry': Woman confronts 'racist' comment by Vaughan Fabricland employee

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 8, 2022

Fabricland says it’s considering the fate of an employee following what one woman is calling a ‘racist’ incident in its Vaughan store.

On Feb. 2, Daphne Choi, a mother-of-two from Richmond Hill, was shopping for fabrics to support her part-time knitting and sewing business.

While paying, she overheard two employees speaking about what she believed to be COVID-19.

During the conversation, she said she overheard one woman say, ‘Chinese are trying to kill us’.

Choi looked at the woman's colleague with a shocked expression, at which point the colleague told the woman she shouldn’t 'say those things', Choi said.

In reply, Choi said the original employee said, 'come on, let’s laugh about it'.

Choi, who doesn't believe either woman had noticed her prior to the comment, suggested the comment wasn’t a laughing matter.

"This isn’t funny and you shouldn’t be saying that,” she said of her reply.

Following the interaction, Choi made a video that would later go viral on Instagram.

"At first … it was disbelief that I heard that," she said. "It made me feel angry. I was more than angry … I was just uncomfortable."

She equated the emotion to accidentally overhearing one person at a party insulting you to another person behind your back.

Choi further explained she was also angered by the idea that had she not been at the location when the comment was said, the woman may not have been called out on her actions.

"The majority are older white women, it just so happens I share a common interest with them," she added.

Choi explained that she believes the other employee only told the woman who made the comment to stop because Choi looked at her in such shock.

"She must have felt it was a comfortable place to say it, but even if I wasn’t there, it’s still not OK to say it," Choi said.

Fabricland released a statement following the incident, explaining the company is currently examining how to deal with the employee and saying the comments don’t line up with the company’s ethos.

"Fabricland is greatly concerned that this happened and we have taken immediate action and are taking further actions to address this matter in accordance with our internal policies to ensure unacceptable behaviour of this nature never happens again," a company spokesperson wrote. "Fabricland strongly condemns anti-Asian racism, as well as all racism and discrimination."

He added he expects a decision about the future of the woman’s employment to come imminently. Regardless of the outcome, employees will need to go through more training, he added.

Choi said that while she doesn't want the woman to lose her job, she doesn’t think it’s suitable for her to remain at that location.

"Would I feel comfortable walking into the store and seeing her again? No," she said. "Should there be a lot of work done? Yes."