Boy with Down Syndrome asked to leave restaurant

A manager at the Hunt Club Road Boston Pizza is no longer working at the family restaurant following an incident Sunday night with an Ottawa family and a 10-year-old boy who has Down Syndrome.

Perry Schwartz, director of communications for Boston Pizza International, said the manager doesn’t work there anymore. He said the manager and franchisee reached a mutual agreement to part ways following the incident.

Elaine Bolduc said she was with her grandson, Tyler Bolduc-Cadieux, and five other relatives ready to order their drinks. Tyler gets nervous around large groups of people, she said, so they usually let him sit alone or with a relative at a nearby table.

Bolduc said Tyler sat with his aunt, Julie Anne Bolduc-Cousineau, in a booth while the rest of the family sat at an adjacent booth. When their server saw the seating arrangement, the manager approached and told Tyler and Julie they had to sit in the back or leave because the pair couldn’t take up a table intended to seat a family.

Tyler’s aunt replied, “but we are a family,’” recalled Bolduc.

Bolduc said the manager repeated herself and told them they had to either sit at the back or leave.

“Well then you tell (Tyler) that,’” Julie responded, according to Bolduc.

That’s when Bolduc says the family left the restaurant.

Bolduc said Tyler heard the whole conversation and was shaken.

“When we were in the car going home he asked my son-in-law, uncle, was I bad?’” said Bolduc. “It broke our hearts and my daughter started crying.”

“It hurt,” said Bolduc. “It made me feel like he wasn’t a human, like he didn’t belong in that restaurant.”

Bolduc said they dined at a nearby Denny’s after the incident and servers accommodated their seating arrangement without any problems.