Tellwut online survey finds that 40% of voters believe a McDonald’s employee discriminated against a Chinese speaking customer

With more people migrating to North America every year, many immigrants try to assimilate to the lifestyle of their new “home”. However, with multiculturalism operating as the backbone of Canadian society, many people do not feel as much pressure to blend into the melting pot as Americans do. Although diversity and multiculturalism have become central pillars in the Canadian context, from time to time they become challenged. Recently a Chinese woman was refused service at McDonald’s restaurant in the suburbs of Vancouver. The woman claimed that she ordered a hot chocolate but was given a coffee instead. When she asked for her order to be fixed, the manager refused to give her the correct beverage she wanted and asked that she leave the restaurant. Consequently, the woman is claiming that she is being discriminated against because English is not her first language. In her defense the local residents of the primarily Chinese neighborhood have demanded that McDonald’s should hire more Mandarin speaking staff. In order to find out panel members opinions about this situation a survey was conducted by online survey company Tellwut Corp. Over 4,000 panel members were polled and asked whether they believed that this was a case of discrimination. The results showed that 40% of participants viewed this situation as being discriminatory, while 33% of participants did not view this case to be discriminatory and the remaining 26% of voters were undecided about the situation. When asked whether panel members felt that the McDonald’s employee should have been more patient when dealing with the woman’s order, results showed that an overwhelming 67% of voters felt that panel members should have been more patient. To further emphasize this point, Tellwut panel member Coffebean commented that “They should have been more patient with her. And anytime a restaurant gets a customer's order wrong they should fix it. Period. No matter what language the customer speaks. That's just good customer service policy”. In contrast to the dominant view held by voters, only 12% of panel members did not think that it was necessary for the employee to be more patient with the woman and 19% of voters were undecided. As the case occurred in a predominantly Asian community, panel members were asked whether they agree with the residents of the area that more Mandarin speaking staff should be employed to work at the McDonald’s restaurant. The findings indicated that there was a mixed response from panel members as 35% of panel members felt that it would be a good idea to hire more Mandarin speaking staff, while 32% of panel members do not think it is necessary as the official languages in Canada or English and French- not Mandarin. The remaining 30% of voters remained undecided. Although there is currently a mixed response from voters, one must seriously question whether it will become discriminatory in the future to refuse to cater more to other cultures and their language(s), especially when immigrants continue to make up the pillars and foundation of Canadian society.