An Ottawa man says his family was left standing in the cold outside a hotel in Saint-Jérôme, Que., last week after staff refused to let them check in because of his service dog.
Stacy Bleeks, who is blind, had travelled to the Laurentians for his son’s hockey tournament, had a reservation at the Comfort Inn and Suites Saint-Jérôme and says he told the front desk he had the proper identification for his five-year-old service dog, Keller.
Keller was trained and certified by the Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind. Still, the hotel turned the family away.
“I just felt so let down, and I felt so alone and so left out in the cold, literally,” Bleeks told CTV News.
“If it was just me, that would be one thing. I could roll with the punches. I’m there with my family. It’s my duty, my responsibility, to provide and to take care of my family, and I was at a loss. I thought ‘I don’t know what to do.’”
Bleeks called police, but officers said they couldn’t intervene, even though refusing service to a person with a service dog is widely treated as discrimination under laws grounded in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
These types of incidents are common, according to Aurélie Tremblay, a program director at the MIRA Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers free guide dogs and service dogs to people living with visual impairments.
She emphasized the need for more regulations and education about service animals, including the creation of a registry in Quebec.
“We want to raise awareness among key ministries about the need for provincial accreditation and framework governing guide dogs and service dog organizations,” Tremblay said.
In a statement to CTV News, Choice Hotels Canada, which owns the Comfort Inn and Suites Saint-Jérôme, apologized to the family and said the hotel will refund Bleeks in full for the three nights he booked.
“In an effort to ensure that this does not happen again, staff at the hotel will undergo further sensitivity training and a refresh on legal policies with relation to persons with disabilities and service animals,” reads the statement.
Bleeks said he appreciated the gesture, but noted that the damage has already been done.
“I would never want what happened to me and my family to happen to anybody else,” he said.
