In Canada, conversations about racial profiling often focus on the police. But for many Indigenous people, the most frequent and damaging encounters happen somewhere far more ordinary — at supermarkets, banks, and retail shops.
Consumer racial profiling (CRP) in retail and service settings is a quiet but pervasive form of discrimination. It can mean being followed in a store, being denied service, having bags searched, and being subjected to doubts and hurtful comments rooted in stereotypes. For Indigenous shoppers, these moments are not only humiliating; they echo generations of colonial surveillance, exclusion, and mistrust.
Two leading experts, Dr. Lorne Foster and Dr. Les Jacobs, have just completed a groundbreaking report on this issue. Commissioned for Wilson v. Canadian Tire et al. — a case set to be heard before the BC Human Rights Tribunal this fall — their work documents how CRP inflicts both individual harms (such as racial trauma, loss of dignity, and internalized racism) and collective harms (such as erosion of community trust, and reinforcement of second-class status).
The Wilson case itself casts light on the everyday realities of prejudices that Indigenous people face in shops and services. Wilson involves allegations that while an Indigenous father and daughter were shopping, the father was singled out for a bag search by a security guard while checking out, despite other customers entering and exiting with similar bags. When his daughter related this embarrassing and demeaning experience to another employee, that employee allegedly told her how his father had taught him that “Indians” live on reserves, are rude, and are demanding of money. When the daughter raised these indignities with the store’s head office, the response was not an investigation, an apology for the discriminatory conduct, or a commitment to change, but the offer of a gift card.
The work of Dr. Foster and Dr. Jacobs makes clear that such retail treatment occurs in a wider context. Consumer racial profiling is not a series of isolated misunderstandings — it is an everyday legal problem, deeply rooted in systemic racism and colonial history, and one that undermines reconciliation efforts. Their recommendations include:
- Indigenous-specific research to document the scope of CRP.
- Healing ceremonies grounded in Indigenous law and tradition.
- Mandatory cultural safety training for retail staff.
- Zero-tolerance policies on racial profiling, supported by operational best practices.
The report makes clear that “shopping while Indigenous” is far from a neutral transaction. It is often a negotiation of dignity, safety, and belonging in spaces that should be open to all.
This fall, as the Tribunal hears the Wilson case, the conversation on racial profiling in Canada may finally focus on the everyday spaces where discrimination hides in plain sight.
LINK: The Report
LINK: Executive Summary of the Report
Lisa C. Fong KC and Ruben Tillman