A Toronto woman says she felt “physically ill” after seeing a sign inside a local bar that appeared to make light of sexual assault, prompting management to issue an apology for the “disgusting” sign and fire an employee they said is responsible.
Katii Capern entered the Locals Only bar Saturday night, near King Street West and Bathurst Street, when she and her friends spotted the sign that stated “no means yes and yes means a—.”
“I asked the server what it stood for and he didn’t want to say but he did say that it stood for ‘anal,'” she told Global News Monday.
“But then when the whole weight of the message sunk in, I felt physically sick and I wish I’d said something at the time but I froze and yesterday it was still bothering me and that’s when I started to take action.”
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After reaching out to the establishment, Capern posted the photo on Facebook and on the popular Toronto Facebook group Bunz Helping Zone and she said the online response was “swift.”
“It was a testament to collective action,” she said, adding that hundreds of people and even some service industry workers vocalized their outrage at the sign.
“It showed that the industry is not OK with it and that people are going to get mad, people are going to say things about this … I was really happy to see there were so many responses.”
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Management posted a statement on Facebook Sunday night that said a staff member had made the “disgusting, derogatory, and insensitive” sign while “unsupervised.”
“We are deeply saddened, shocked, and appalled that a trusting member of our staff would do such a thing, and we are taking the appropriate measures to immediately terminate this staff member’s employment,” it said.
“We will take responsibility for this incident and effective immediately, we will reissue a staff training course to further educate our staff members of appropriate practice and policy in the workplace.”
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The bar also extended its “deepest apology” to anyone offended by the sign, adding it was “unfathomable and completely disheartening” to have written it and is taking “extreme measures” to ensure patron safety.
Capern said the most concerning issue with the sign is that it’s inside of a bar, the type of establishment where date rape and sexual assault can frequently occur, which could promote a dangerous line of thinking.
“I’m glad that they responded. I think it’s a start but I don’t think it’s enough,” she said, adding that this wasn’t the first time the bar had put up signs like this.
“I don’t think that it’s enough to just apologize. I’m glad that they did respond, very relieved about that, but I think that there’s still work to be done.”
She added that while the bar’s steps to further educate staff on sexual assault prevention and the necessity of using the right words in the workplace, that work should have been done initially.
“I think that there’s a deeper problem here and I think that an apology isn’t enough — I see that they’ve been deleting photos and hiding reviews so I understand they’re worried and for good reason,” Capern said.
“So I hope that they do go beyond an apology.”
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