Tim Hortons says the owner of its location at Robson and Richards streets in downtown Vancouver “is committed to personally apologizing” for dumping a bucket of water on a homeless man outside the store on Friday.
On Sunday, the company issued a statement calling the owner’s actions “regretful” and saying they took place “in a moment of frustration."
“On behalf of Tim Hortons we sincerely apologize,” the company said, calling the incident “not at all reflective of our brand and restaurant owner values.”
For Amanda Germann, they’re not reflective values of this specific Tim Hortons location either.
Germann and her husband Kevin are homeless. They told CTV News they regularly spend time near Robson and Richards streets, and have gotten to know the owner and staff at the Tim Hortons there.
“We have a great respect for him and his store,” Germann said. “During times when we were starving and we needed help, he was so quick to help.”
In the past, the couple has gotten food and clothing from the manager, who she knows only as Chris.
“He’s always been there as a friend and as an ally, and I look at him as family,” she said.
It’s unclear whether the man who dumped the bucket of water was Chris or someone else from the store, but Germann is convinced that no one who works at the store or is a regular patron there would have done so without provocation.
“They’ve done more for us than anyone in this province has,” she said. “They give us a strength that I can’t say very many people in society do considering our situation.”
Arianne Summach, whose posts about the incident generated thousands of comments and shares on Twitter and Facebook, told CTV News she never expected it to receive the kind of response it did.
Summach’s posts described what a friend of hers who witnessed the incident saw.
“She saw a man come out of Tim Hortons with a bucket of water, and instead of pouring it on the homeless person, he kind of poured it right beside him so that his sleeping bag got wet first,” Summach said.
She said it seemed to her like the man was frustrated about other things and took it out on a vulnerable person. On Facebook, she called for people to boycott the store where the incident happened.
“My goal was to make this person regret their actions and make Tim Hortons do something about it,” she said.
Even if the homeless person was being a nuisance when the man came out with the bucket of water, there were better ways that the situation could have been handled, Summach said. The man could have called the police or the Salvation Army to come offer the homeless person shelter, she said.
“Maybe he’s being a nuisance because he’s having a rough time in life. He doesn’t need water poured on him.”
Tim Hortons said the owner of the store will personally “make amends” with the victim, as well as make a “meaningful donation” to Belkin House, a residential program facility in Vancouver run by the Salvation Army.
