B.C. Indigenous group pulls conference from Vancouver hotel after incident it calls racist

An Indigenous group is planning to move its youth conference from a large downtown hotel because it says the Hyatt Regency Vancouver refuses to acknowledge “racist and disturbing mistreatment” of one if its staff members while he stayed at the hotel.

The B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres is calling on the hotel to publicly apologize to the man, a cultural adviser for the association. It also wants the chain to accept accountability for the harm it caused the man and to provide mandatory anti-racism training for all its staff.

The association had planned to hold its Indigenous youth leadership training event on March 22-25 at the Hyatt but is now looking for other venues and will move as much of the conference as it can, it said.

Executive director Leslie Varley told a news conference on Friday that she was denied a chance to discuss her concerns with the hotel’s general manager and that in a formal letter the hotel denied the employee acted inappropriately. The group was given a breakfast voucher in compensation, she said.