‘This incident isn’t isolated’: Kelowna restaurant owner speaks out about COVID-19 confrontations

A Kelowna, B.C., restaurant owner is voicing concern about an increasing number of verbal attacks on her staff sparked by COVID-19 rules.

A new video making its rounds on social media was taken by a customer who was upset that employees at Kelowna’s Frankie We Salute You restaurant required her to provide a first name and phone number for contact tracing.

1:08 Video of COVID-19 confrontation in Kelowna restaurant

Restaurant owner Christina Skinner said that the customer refused to wear a mask and was ranting about COVID-19 conspiracies when she came into the restaurant.

The woman also said she had just been asked to leave another restaurant, Skinner said.

The customer started arguing with staff about contact tracing protocols, which is when the restaurant owner said she stepped in.

“I did remind her that these policies aren’t our choice, they are a public health requirement that we’re following,” Skinner said.

In the video, Skinner can eventually be heard asking the customer to leave.

“And then on her way out the door she told me that she hoped my business would fail and that she hoped I died of COVID,” Skinner said.

The restaurant owner said the customer then posted the video online.

“She’s also launched a hate campaign on social media,” Skinner said. “And it affects me for sure: higher anxiety levels, I’ve been feeling depressed, and my staff are feeling the same way.”

“I like to think I have pretty thick skin. But I’ve never seen anything like this before, this kind of behaviour. And the frequency of this behaviour is very, very new. And it’s wearing me down.”

Skinner said it might be a small percentage of customers behaving poorly, but in a busy restaurant, it starts adding up.

“You almost go into this post-traumatic stress response where it starts happening, and then you’re reliving the previous time where somebody told you they hope you die of COVID.”

Skinner believes many restaurants are afraid to speak up because their business is customer service based.

“We’re very vulnerable,” she said. “Our role is to keep customers happy, and if we don’t, our business suffers.”

“I’m really asking for the public’s support in this to just be aware of how bad it is and support our restaurant service workers.”

The Downtown Kelowna Association suggested that businesses should keep the non-emergency RCMP phone line on hand and call it if customers won’t follow COVID-19 protocols or leave.

“That’s the biggest thing we can do, is call the police and have them settle these things because quite frankly, business owners and you and I, we’re not equipped to deal with that kind of thing,” Downtown Kelowna Association spokesperson Mark Burley said.

The customer in question told Global News that she would be speaking with her lawyer and wasn’t available for an interview on Monday.