A cafe worker is speaking out after she was verbally attacked and threatened by a man who refused to wear a mask.
People taking out their hostility on frontline workers during lockdown seems to be a regular occurrence — like the case where a woman filmed herself confronting staff at Sweet Potato or when a woman threatened staff at Sukoshi Mart.
The mask bylaw has been in effect since July, and while there are exemptions for health reasons, it seems people can't help making life difficult for staff.
The latest is a staff member at Te Aro in Leslieville who filmed her interaction with a customer on Tuesday.
The staff member, who does not wish to be named for this article, told blogTO the man in the video walked in without a mask, then put one on but then got angry when she asked him to wear it when he entered the cafe next time.
He then took off the mask, saying he has a medical exemption but it was in such an aggressive and violent way that she told him she wasn't comfortable serving him.
"He became belligerent," she says.
Then when the staff member went out to photograph his car to make a report to police, the man returned and verbally threatened her, she says.
In the video he comes into the shop maskless, walks up very close to the staff member, and demands her name.
In the second clip, he launches into a stream of profanities, calling her "a f**king fat bitch."
Anyone who works in customer service has experienced some nasty or difficult customers occasionally, she adds, but this man was like no one she has ever seen in her three years at Te Aro.
"It was not normal, it was very much unhinged behaviour," she says. "This was a different level."
She was particularly afraid when he walked too close to her without a mask.
"I was preparing for the worst," she says.
She is feeling rattled after the encounter and is now taking time off.
"It is just not something you are ever prepared to deal with," she says.
She is asking for help identifying the man and also for people just to be kinder.
"It's an extremely contentious and difficult time in this world," she wrote on Instagram. "Most of us are just trying to cope and experience joy where possible. I want to take action so this person does not harm anyone else. Please share and circulate."
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