Dining out with young children is not always the easiest or most straightforward experience in the world, which is why so many people will understand where dad Phillip Ryan is coming from in the following report.
Canadian restaurant chain Earls is facing into a human rights hearing, after staff at one of their branches turned down Mr Ryan’s request for a highchair.
According to reports, Mr Ryan was dining at the restaurant with his family when he asked for a highchair for his one-year-old baby, in February of last year.
The father reported that staff at the restaurant ‘declined’ to provide the chair and that, when he questioned it, he was told it wasn’t company policy to provide one. He was told the very same thing when he visited another branch of the chain, later that month.
The restaurant responded by saying that they had offered Mr Ryan alternative and ‘reasonable accommodation’ – a booth for his family to sit, where he could place the child on his lap. Understandably, Mr Ryan deemed this arrangement unsafe for such a small child.
A spokeswoman went on to insist that Earls welcomes families with children, admitting that the availability of highchairs varies from branch to branch.
While the company put in an application to have the human rights hearing dismissed, latest reports confirm that it will, indeed, go ahead.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the lack of provision of a highchair equates to a breach in human rights?
