Vancouver hotel apologizes following allegation of anti-Indigenous racism over hotel men's room incident

The Hyatt Regency Vancouver has apologized after the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCAAFC) said one of its members was subjected to anti-Indigenous racism at the hotel last month.

At a press conference last week, BCAAFC Executive Director Leslie Varley said the man, a cultural adviser in his early 40s, suffered humiliation and trauma when a Hyatt employee denied him entry to the restroom four times on the night of Feb. 24.

"The cultural adviser recounts how the hotel employee mocked him and smirked at him, noticing his wet clothing," said Varley.

In a statement last week, Hyatt general manager Patrick Gosselin said the employee was locking up the second-floor restroom after 11 p.m. when the man approached. Gosselin said the employee initially asked the man to use the lobby restroom instead.

"Within approximately 20 seconds of first encountering the man, and as soon as our colleague learned that he was a guest who urgently needed to use the restroom, our colleague gave him immediate access to the restroom," he said.

In a letter dated March 15, Gosselin apologized to the cultural adviser.

"We have empathy for the pain this has caused him," Gosselin wrote.

"We deeply regret that the BCAAFC Cultural Advisor felt discriminated against at our hotel as this is not aligned with our purpose to care for people so they can be their best."

'We had to negotiate this apology'

The letter went on to say the hotel is committed to learning from what happened and is working to ensure it doesn't happen again.

It said the hotel plans to have its own cultural adviser to train staff and work with Indigenous organizations. The letter also said the hotel will work with BCAAFC and other Indigenous organizations to help hire and retain Indigenous people.

A statement from BCAAFC on Thursday welcomed the apology.

Speaking to CBC News Thursday, Varley said the letter came after conversations with the hotel, which initially took the stance that it did nothing wrong.

"These are corporate apologies. They're not personal apologies where somebody's deeply sorry and they ask how they can make [up for it]," Varley said.

"We had to negotiate this apology so it doesn't have the same feeling of closure and addressing as a real apology."

Following the incident, the BCAAFC relocated its Gathering Our Voices Indigenous youth event from the Hyatt Regency Vancouver to other venues.

Varley said they had been contacted by several organizations that considered not hosting an event at the hotel.

"I genuinely think that's why the Hyatt finally came around, because it comes down to money for them and they could see that there was some strong support ... from allies and they wanted to settle the issue and and move ahead."