I understand the feeling of the OP...
If it is not required by law... or even in this case by store policy and is a mistake that ended up in the hands of a cashier through ignorance, or carelessness that has shown to be dealt with by the stores management.
There are some interesting points brought up here... We complain about the laws and regulations that make life inconvenient, onerous, or remove what we see as our freedoms.
If we look at the laws implemented and revised in parliament today they are all the result of some type of civil disobedience such as, Hutterites not having their picture raken for driver's license, people lobbying to wear hijabs, or not showing their face for a drivers license photo, or court appearance either!...etc. because they feel it is an infringement on their freedom of religion. Many people on here that complain about the giun registry meanwhile support the laws requiring these people to show their face... because it does not bother us.
Tolerance is the path to having our freedoms impinged upon.
After the the engineering school massacre there was a change in law brought in by Kim Campbell that limited certain rifles and magazine amounts and a few people complained but overall there was no action. So then Allan Rock decided to go one step further and be a hero and went a great many steps further with C-68... and that finally crossed the line of tolerance into the land of indignance and caused civil disobedience with many people refusing to register their guns, and caused the various lobby groups to step up and form against gun registration and finally after wasting billions of our dollars (1 billion is the equivalent of every person in canada spending 300 dollars) because we finally decided we were not going to tolerate the infringement of our freedoms any further...
Canadians are known worldwide for being a tolerant country, Tolerance is a very dangerous thing. Indifference is different than tolerance. indifference is when a decision does not affect us or matter to us. Tolerance is when we choose to accept a negative consequence because to do otherwise would create uncomfort, conflict and requires effort.
Not long ago someone who fought for us against gun control was applauded here on the AO for having the cjones to stand up for us and go to Ottowa to make sure that the ludicrous gun registry disappears.
The OP here saw a situation and did what he could to educate and correct the situation by taking action.
In my opinion there has been assumptions made.
What I choose to take home is that I am glad that there are people choosing not to tolerate further unnecessary infringements on our rights and freedoms.
I love the quote, "For evil to prevail all it requires is that goos people do nothing"...
When I buy reloading supplies and people ask for my PAL I ask is it for law or for store policy. If they say law I explain that the law does not require it and I explain that I am refusing because it is not required by law and ask to speak with manager.
If they say it is store policy, then I explain that under PIPEDA that they require my written consent to access personal information such as drivers' license, SIN, or other unique identifier number or government issued licensing or cards. This act also requires for the company to disclose how they will use this information and the purposes it is collected for to determine if there is a bona fid requirement for this inforation in order for store to be in regulatory compliance...
Yes this does take time, effort and energy, but if I just leave my stuff on the counter and walk away and go to another store that does not do much to change store policy. All that happens is that the cashier or other low level peon ends up having to put the stuff away.
Stores do not collect information on how many people are walking out without making a purchase, and by the time the corporate management notices things it is on the quarterly balance sheet and the damage has long been done....
So the fact the OP took the effort to do their best to make difference, wrote a letter, come on here and posted the results along with their frustrations... then I see the East German style judges sitting behind screens and keyboards making assumptions and judgement calls.
In the end who do we want on our side... the ones willing to take action or those who sit back in the weeds and judge the actions of others while being inactive themselves.
Suggestions can be made on how to make this action more effective, and encourage people to be vigilant and diligent.
Things happened with gun registry once enough of us got fed up with what was happening and suddenly we have a voice.
When I had to sign the book at XXX for powder the counter person turned away to get it and Santa Claus boght a pound of IMR 4350 that day... Address was North Pole, Canada H0H 0H0. That was my act of civil disobedience... the counter person did not need any more educating as he showed me the book and said he would get my powder as I wrote the information in....
He tolerated my act of civil disobedience... because he was in agreement.
Being a cashier in s porting goods store would be a version of hell for me. I have a hard enough time at the self checkout in a grocery store getting the fricken scanner to work, then I place the items in the wrong spot... These cashiers need to know how to run the till, make sure nothing is missed, and then on top of it know what requires a Pal, what doesn't etc. all for minimum wage. On top of it all dealing with a bunch of redneck outdoorsmen who are all very particular or fussy...
So the letter after the fact to the manager of the store was a good move... put the focus on where it needed to be. On the policy makers...
Cheers!
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