Sault restaurant apologizes after Indigenous family told to leave

An Indigenous family says they felt "belittled" after a Sault Ste. Marie restaurant asked them to leave the premises.

The incident began at Giovanni’s Restaurant when the family asked a man at a nearby table to stop swearing in front of the young child that was with them, Loralee Hocaluk said in a social media post.

Her cousin, Tristyn Pangman, said online that she took a photo of the man because she felt unsafe after he allegedly threatened to "smack" her in front of her baby.

The woman's family was then asked to leave, Pangman said.

"I'm honestly so hurt right now … I couldn't even eat … after that, I just left with my baby and went to the car to cry ugh," she said on social media.

Hocaluk said she was visiting her family from Winnipeg, Man., and were stopping to have a celebratory dinner following a powwow.

In a post on Facebook Sunday night, she detailed the upsetting experience and less than two days later, the post has nearly 500 comments and more than 1,200 shares.

"Truly I had never felt so belittled, especially in a ribbon skirt, first-hand racism being dished out," she said. 

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Hocaluk said someone from the restaurant reached out to her right away when she posted an online review.

"Yeah, someone reached out as soon as I told them, it was such an emotional evening. I held back tears with everything in me," she said.

Giovanni's Restaurant told CTV News in a private Facebook message the story is "completely misconstrued."

"We have no other comment at this time and I assure you everyone is welcome in our establishments," it added.

The restaurant hasn't responded to questions about why the Indigenous family was asked to leave and to elaborate on what, in its view, has been misconstrued. At the time of publication, CTV News has not received a response to messages sent directly to the restaurant's owner.

A social media post Monday afternoon on Giovanni's Facebook page has received 520 comments and 77 shares in less than 24 hours.

"In light of the recent unfortunate incident that took place in our establishment, we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that we are actively reviewing the sequence of events that led to allegations of mal-intent towards the Indigenous community while attempting to de-escalate an argument between two neighboring customers," the restaurant said.

"We are saddened to see that the actions taken were received as discriminatory. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who has been affected by this isolated incident and we will be reaching out to the individuals involved."

Hocaluk said online that she is trying to make people aware of how the situation was handled and "that our Indigenous people face these challenges in our everyday lives, it isn't talked about enough and it almost feels like we only have each other after this occurrence."

Pangman told CTV News in a message she is still very shaken up about the incident and is scared to leave her house with her one-year-old son.