WINNIPEG — Some Manitoba retailers are calling on the provincial government to impose an indoor mask rule, in hopes it will defuse tensions with customers when stores choose to do so on their own. “It would kind of take the onus off of the shop owners and the individuals if the government put something in place,” Zoe McCrea, manager of Winnipeg fashion boutique Out of the Blue, told CBC News.
Dominique Smith, who is immunocompromised, says her Elemental Witchery and Conjure Boutique has attracted negative attention since she implemented a mandatory mask rule. “If I had that support from the government, I would not ever be getting any sort of abuse, because in the end, it’s the rules.” Not everyone is so optimistic. Andree Penner of Organic Planet Worker Co-op supports such a rule, but said she isn’t sure it would eliminate “trolling.”
Jonathan Alward, Prairie director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said incidents have been rare at the retailers he’s heard from. Meanwhile the province’s chief public health officer is open to introducing a mandate. Dr. Brent Roussin said wearing masks indoors is “absolutely a good idea” and “nothing is off the table” including a province-wide rule.
