Canada: The Good, The Bad and the Truly Ugly.

I thought I would try for light humor, hence the title, but I just cannot do it. I had a truly ugly experience at a RV park in Penticton, B.C. Canada. It involved not only the denial of access for my service dog, and therefore denial of lodging for me and my husband, but pure harassment about my status as a person with a hearing loss. 

I do want to say that the parts of Canada in Alberta and B.C. that we visited are beautiful and the majority of the citizens warm and friendly and other than three incidents of Cher being accosted by off lead dogs (that is "the bad"), she and I had no problems and were accepted as a team. However the following experience at the final leg of our trip was upsetting enough for me to dampen my spirits and my enthusiasm about that part of B.C. 

The humiliation I experienced yesterday (September 15th, 2013) as we attempted to check into Oxbow RV Resort with my Service Dog was inexcusable. Her ID, which I showed when asked was rejected. "It's a fake" the owner screamed at me (the husband of the husband wife owner team).  When I refused to back down on Cherelle's legitimacy as a Service Dog, he then attacked my disability status. This made the situation more appalling and traumatic for me. The owner harassed me, insisting I prove I was "deaf". I never claimed I was deaf, rather severely hearing impaired. He demanded I show him if I was wearing hearing aids. Flustered and in shock I did. Even then he refuse to believe that I was hearing impaired because in his opinion I did not meet his criteria as "deaf". He attempted to get me alone to conduct his own hearing evaluation on me which felt just plain creepy and at that point I walked away from him badly shaken. Perhaps if I were Canadian rather than American this would not have happened? If his goal was to be so unpleasant as to make us leave then the campaign was a success. My husband and I could not leave Penticton or B.C. fast enough.

However his demeaning and insulting actions will have consequences. I will be contacting the following and registering a complaint: Good Sam, (which is a huge supporter of Dogs for the Deaf the organization that gave me Cherelle), Penticton Chamber of Commerce, The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, B.C. Human Rights Clinic, BC Human Right Tribunal, and The Ministry of Attorney General. There is also an American Attorney who specializes in legal rights of those with hearing loss whose advice I will be seeking. 

When that business owner went from refusing me access because I had a Service Dog to refusing me lodging because he did not want to believe I was hearing impaired, he crossed over into territory he had no business going into and I might add no qualifications to make that determination. I do not want anyone else having to undergo that kind of ugly experience by that individual. 

Warm Wishes from me.

Tail wags from Cherelle aka, Cher.

    Bow Falls at Banff, Alberta, Canada.