BMO apologizes after guard asks residential school survivor to leave Winnipeg bank on 2 occasions
CBC
An Indigenous woman in Winnipeg says she plans to keep working with a bank on reconciliation efforts at the institution, despite being asked to leave a downtown branch on two recent occasions.
Vivian Ketchum saw signs in the windows of the Bank of Montreal on Portage Avenue and Main Street reading "reconciliation starts with honouring" and "reconciliation starts with listening" in the days before the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.
Ketchum, who attended residential school in Kenora in the 1970s, said she was drawn in by the signs.
When she entered the bank, though, a security guard asked her if she was there for banking purposes. When she said no and that she was just there to look around, Ketchum says the guard told her to leave.
She walks with a limp and her mouth was frozen after having just visited a dentist, leaving her speech slurred at the time. She believes the guard thought she was drunk.
"As I'm talking to the bank employee at the counter the security guard comes and interferes and starts arguing with me, and even after the bank employee told him it's OK, I said, 'Forget it, I'll come back another day,'" Ketchum said.
"Reconciliation starts with working with us, not … throwing me out."
Ketchum said she contacted the bank manager, who apologized. They scheduled a followup appointment weeks later.
When she returned, Ketchum said she was again asked to leave by the same security guard.
"I am beyond angry — I stand up in the lobby and I yell out, 'I'm here to have an appointment.… I'm getting asked again to leave by the security guard,'" she said.
Ketchum left. As she walked away, her phone rang. She said it was the bank manager apologizing again and inviting her back for the meeting.
"I said, 'I would like to come back but that security guard keeps tossing me out,'" she said.
The Bank of Montreal described Ketchum's experience as "unacceptable and upsetting."
"We are committed to truth and reconciliation and have contacted this [security guard's] employer to raise our concerns," BMO said in a statement Tuesday.
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