Look for 'tells,' not skin colour, former loss prevention employee advises after Giant Tiger incident

A former loss prevention employee who worked at several stores in Saskatoon says that racial profiling is alive and well in the industry, but employees should be trained not to stereotype and to recognize that anyone can be a thief.

This comes after Ezekial Bigknife posted a video to social mediathat showed him being followed by a loss prevention employee in a Giant Tiger store in Regina last week. The employee has since been fired.

Representatives for Giant Tiger have apologized to Bigknife and have said that they are currently undergoing an internal review of loss prevention procedures, aiming to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Ezekial Bigknife shares his story of harassment, racial profiling

7 years ago

Duration 2:05

Ezekial Bigknife shares a video he recorded at a Regina Giant Tiger. Bigknife decided to shoot it after being followed around the store by the same employee multiple times since October.

Craig Silliphant used to work in loss prevention and says he was trained to look for "tells" rather than judging someone based on their skin colour.

"If you're doing it right, it should be much the same as [what] you would [do] when you're playing poker," said Silliphant.

He said some key signs to watch for may be somebody wearing dark glasses or hovering around a department.

Silliphant said he was trained on the job, and his trainer taught him to look for these tells.

"Once you're trained to see this stuff, you can't unsee it. There's stuff that goes on right under people's noses," said Silliphant.

"Doesn't matter. Anybody any skin colour, any age, any type, any demographic, suit-wearing, not suit-wearing any person can easily be a thief."

Silliphant said that although he was taught not to racially profile, he did see others in theindustry who did.

"There are totally guys I worked with who would see an Aboriginal person and assumed they were going to steal something," he said.

"Thankfully, I was taught not to do that, and there are a lot of people that aren't doing that in the industry that are good at finding people because they're exhibiting tells."

Bigknifegets apology from Giant Tiger

Bigknife said he is satisfied that the employee has been fired, and is pleased that Giant Tiger has pledged to do an internal review.

"They saidthat they are sorry this had to happen, and that it shouldn't have occurred in the first place. Nobody should be followed around in a store like that," said Bigknife.

He said he had just returned from another trip to Giant Tiger Tuesday afternoon, where the manager and staff personally apologized.

"They shook my hand and said, 'Sorry that it ever happened,'and that I did matter to them. It made it feel better," said Bigknife.

John Graham is the director of government relations for the Prairie region of the Retail Council of Canada. He says stereotyping can create the risk of being blind to all risk.

"Most retailers are continuing reinforcing the importance of being respectful and fair to all customers, and the reality isthat you want to create a welcoming environment for all customers," said Graham.

Graham added that having visible security systems in place is also linked to a reduction of risk of theft.

Bigknifesaid it's important to make it known that this kind of discriminationhappens everywhereand he thinks loss prevention employees should be taught to be more discreet.