SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The uptown Liquor Shop did not discriminate against an Inuit woman who was denied service after a cashier at the store deemed her to be intoxicated, the NWT Human Rights Adjudication Panel has ruled.

A NWT human rights panel ruled last staff at the Liquor Shop didn't refuse service to Bessie Kahak - seen here with her spouse Don Mercredi in May 2014 - because she is Inuit. NNSL file photo

The ruling comes more than a year after Bessie Kahak filed a complaint alleging staff refused to sell her beer after assuming she was associated with a pair of other Inuit women who were also denied alcohol on the evening in question.

Kahak told Yellowknifer last year she had entered the Stanton Plaza store on March 15, hoping to buy beer to share with friends that evening. When she reached the till the cashier told her she was intoxicated. She said two women from her home community - who had been drinking - were sitting outside the shop but she herself had not been drinking.

In his decision handed down Nov. 24, adjudicator Louis Sebert concluded "staff may have erred in coming to the conclusion (that Kahak was intoxicated) but the error, if any, was not as a result of any racial or ethnic discrimination towards the complainant.

"I find no evidence the refusal to serve was related to the complainant's ethnic or racial background and therefore dismiss the complaint."

Two Liquor Shop staff members delivered testimony in a "straightforward manner and appeared to recall clearly the incident that gave rise to this," he stated, adding staff followed procedures set out in the NWT Liquor Act and by the store.

"It is clear the store serves a great number of customers from all racial and ethnic backgrounds and that very few customers are refused service," wrote Sebert. "Both witnesses were very confident in their ability to properly determine the intoxication, if any, of customers and did not seem to accept that an error could be made in evaluating customers. They concluded (Kahak) was intoxicated."

While the panel concluded that racial discrimination didn't factor into staff decision-making in the incident, he did find the Liquor Act was lacking in specific cultural training for liquor store staff in the territory.

"The absence of specific training does not mean that staff are insensitive to cross-cultural issues but the Liquor Commission may wish to examine this issue when policies are reviewed," he wrote.

The Liquor Shop had asked to be reimbursed $5,000 in court costs, arguing the case was frivolous and vexatious and had affected the business financially when the controversy was reported in the press. The store also complained that Kahak had missed several hearing dates and initially did not have a lawyer which prolonged the case. Sebert ultimately refused to award costs.

"I do not find that this matter has been frivolously or vexatiously prolonged by the conduct of the complainant," wrote Sebert.

"(Kahak) clearly felt strongly about this matter and did seek and finally obtain representation."

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