At La Diperie in Dollard-des-Ormeaux (DDO), the ice cream shop’s owners have been fighting what they consider to be the good fight.
“We’re fighting for our rights as an establishment to allow people to sit when they’re coming for ice cream and I’m including handicapped, elderly and pregnant women,” said Carla Tabah, one of the shop’s owners.
Tabah and her business partner, Lynn Aziz, said they’ve been targeted by the City of DDO regarding a bylaw that restricts the seating capacity of their shop.
“I was under the impression, being an ice cream place, that we would be allowed 12 seats or less,” said Tabah.
In fact, according to the city, La Diperie is not allowed to have anyone sit anywhere on the premises because of a specific law based on the square footage of the building versus the parking spots available to them.
“People are frustrated,” said Aziz. “They are rightfully upset, I mean we had families sitting on the floor having their ice cream — it’s inhumane.”
La Diperie has some benches built into the wall, but customers are not permitted to use those either.
“We have a handicapped school that comes in with some really severe disabilities” said Tabah.
“As a store owner, am I supposed to say ‘sorry, you can’t sit on this workbench?'”
The shop hasn’t gotten a fine yet.
“They did state that if they ever see a person sitting on the bench that under any circumstance, any conditions, they will fine us,” said Tabah.
DDO resident Kenny Mandel told Global News the imposed rule is not sitting well with customers either.
“It was a bit frustrating because I held my daughter and I couldn’t sit. I just ate my ice cream holding my daughter, and her friends were here, and they had to sit on the floor as well,” he said.
Phan Luu, who came in for ice cream with her young daughter, was also perplexed by the rule.
“I don’t even understand why they would even bother having laws like that to monitor what clients and customers want to do, where they want to eat. I don’t think it bothers anyone,” said Luu.
The City of Dollard-des-Ormeaux declined Global News’ request for an interview.
However, they did suggest that the owners of the franchise make an appeal to the city to amend the zoning bylaw.
Aziz insisted she already did that and “the response was ‘it takes time, it takes money, good luck with that.”‘
So, they started a paper petition in-store; after two days they’ve gathered almost 1,000 signatures.
The owners of the franchise said they would be happy to find a solution that works for everybody — the city included.
In the meantime, Aziz and Tabah said they will try to get as many signatures as possible to create awareness about their situation.