‘Labelled as deadbeats’: Winnipeg company sends invoice with offensive term to First Nation
Posted October 5, 2022 7:41 pm.
A Manitoba woman says she was “offended, angry, hurt” after receiving an invoice from a Winnipeg company – but the owner insists she’s not to blame.
Wilma Crane, who lives in Oxford House – a First Nations Cree community north of Winnipeg – says after ordering more than $400 worth of meat from Public Meat, she received an invoice with words that shocked her and her family.
Under “sales region” on the invoice, it said: Oxford House Deadbeats.
Crane says that term is offensive to her community.
“We were so angry because we were labelled as deadbeats,” said Georgina Crane, Wilma’s sister. “Not racism, it was that we were labelled as deadbeats. And not just us, the whole community.”
Invoice sent from Public Meat to Oxford House customer. (Credit: Wilma Crane/handout)
Julia Paek, the owner of Public Meat on Henderson Highway, says she had no idea what that word meant when she sent out the invoice last month.
In 2016, Paek says she and her husband bought Public Meat and decided to keep the original database of customers. She says, without realizing, the term “Oxford House Deadbeats” was already in the system.
“This in one word is a totally honest mistake,” said Paek through her translator, Young Bae.
Paek, who immigrated from South Korea in 2014, says it was not her intention to offend people from the Oxford House Region. She says the reason she didn’t catch the mistake in the first place was because of a language barrier.
“She is not fluent in speaking and writing and reading,” said Bae of Paek.
The Crane sisters say that regardless of the mistake, the invoice shouldn’t have been sent in the first place.
“Whether it was a previous owner that did that, it still left her office with ‘deadbeats’ on it,” said Georgina.
Paek has written an apology letter with the help of her son to the community of Oxford House. She also says that she has offered financial compensation.
Apology letter sent from Public Meat owner Julia Paek. (Credit: handout)
