Skip to main content

Shoppers enter the Sears store at the Eaton Centre in Toronto during a closing sale on Jan. 13, 2014.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

A Sears store employee in Winnipeg has been fired after what appeared to be a racially charged exchange with a customer that was recorded by a witness and uploaded to social media.

The Saturday incident at a mall outlet was allegedly sparked by the employee telling the customer to get his child off a lawn mower that was on display.

The video shows the worker respond with "You just came off the boat?" when the customer, who appears to be Asian, refers to the staff member coming from a job at a local gas bar after being told security had been notified.

The video also shows the customer swearing at the employee and demanding he be fired.

Vincent Power, a Toronto-based spokesman for Sears Canada, says the worker was immediately suspended and a decision was later made to fire him and issue an apology.

Darlyne Bautista, co-ordinator of Canada's first Filipino heritage courses at the University of Winnipeg, says both the employee and the customer are culpable based on the words spoken by both at the beginning of the video.

Interact with The Globe