Bookstore employee accused of racial profiling after altercation with Indigenous man on Commercial Drive

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A Vancouver bookstore owner says he’s deeply disturbed by the actions of an employee accused of racial profiling but the employee’s decision to resign was voluntary.

A physical altercation between a worker and an Indigenous man outside the Commercial Drive location of Pulp Fiction Books on Sunday led to accusations of racial profiling and a public apology from the store’s owner.

Owner Christopher Brayshaw confirms the employee resigned Wednesday afternoon.

“I know him as a principled and non-racially biased person. I believe that he made a terrible mistake and is paying the logical consequence of his very, very bad decision,” he says.

Brayshaw says he faced an onslaught of online criticism for not firing the employee immediately.

The staff member involved in an altercation with an Indigenous man at our Commercial Drive location on Sunday has resigned. I am in touch with the man & will meet with him next week.

— Pulpfiction Books @pfbvan.bsky.social (@pfbvan) August 21, 2019

The possibility that the incident was racial profiling was raised in a Facebook post from a woman who says she is the man’s cousin.

“My cousin is Indigenous and felt immediately profiled while walking into the store with his 5 year old son. The guy looked at him and said ‘I don’t want to look at your books’ and dismissed him,” the post says. “My cousin got upset and left the store where he threw one of his own books on the ground in frustration and the guy followed him outside and proceeded to punch him in the head and then continuously punch and grab him in front of his 5 year old.”

Brayshaw says he got in touch with the man involved Wednesday afternoon and will meet with him so he can apologize.

“I want to make this right. I want there to be a path forward for this man,” he says, adding he remains ashamed and upset by the employee’s behaviour.

Braysaw says the incident escalated after a misunderstanding–that the books he was trying to sell were rejected because they could be infested with bugs.

He tells NEWS 1130 the man had called ahead to see if the store would take his books, and was told to come down.

“We [then] received a phone call from a competing book store in the neighbourhood who identified a man with a stack of material for sale which was described to us as freezing cold. The bookseller said it kind of felt to her like the material had just been taken out of a freezer, and that she had turned the material down because she was concerned it had bed bugs or moth larva in it and that’s totally something that folks will do if they think that they have goods that might have insects or pests in them. She said ‘I turned the stuff down but this guy is heading your way, just be prepared.'”

Brayshaw also wrote a blog post for the Pulpfiction website in an attempt to explain what happened. In it, he says when the potential seller arrived at Pulpfiction, the staff member turned him away at the door.

“When the client arrived, the staff member did not discuss the concerns raised by the other bookstore with the client, but simply said that he was unable to buy the client’s material,” he says in the post. “Frustrated and angry, the client left the store and threw his books around on the sidewalk. For reasons I do not understand and definitely do not agree with, the staff member chose to leave the store and hurl the client’s books back at him. An altercation ensued that ended up with a 911 call and the staff member and client being interviewed by the VPD.”

The Indigenous man’s sister says in her post that his whole family witnessed the incident – they’d been having coffee at a nearby Starbucks. She says she works nearby, and went to Pulpfiction to speak with the employee afterwards.

“He tried to justify his violence and attack by the fact my cousin had sworn at him and had thrown his own book on the ground outside the store, he had also lied to the cops about what happened,” the post says. “This is completely unacceptable and disgusting behaviour. There is NEVER a reason to use violence, this was a blatant act of racism and hate.”

Brayshaw says while he doesn’t know why his employee reacted the way he did, it wasn’t racially motivated.

“My staff member never should have engaged. Any allegation of anti-Aboriginal prejudice is absolutely unfounded,” he says. “I never want anyone to experience this treatment, particularly not a business that has my name on it.”

In the blog post, he says the staff member didn’t know the seller was Indigenous.

“There has been extensive online discussion suggesting the client was profiled and assaulted because he is Indigenous. This allegation is untrue. The staff member did not realize the client was Indigenous until he was being interviewed by the VPD, and the client’s indigineneity [sic] played no role in the staff member’s poorly conceived decision making.”

Constable Steve Addison with the Vancouver Police Department says officers were at Pulpfiction for an incident outside the store at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

“The incident was investigated by VPD and the matter has been concluded. There was insufficient evidence of a criminal offence.”

The employee has not been fired, Brayshaw says, but for the time being he’s not allowed to interact with customers.