Emile Wickham said he and his friends were stunned when a waiter at Hong Shing Chinese Restaurant demanded they pay before they were served.
When the group complained, they were told it was policy, according to their testimony.
« I still felt skeptical, so then I approached other tables, » Wickham told CNN. No one else he spoke with had been asked to prepay, he said.
« There was frustration initially. And that frustration turned into a feeling of dejection and sadness, » he said.
The restaurant’s response
Nearly a year after the incident, Wickham, who is originally from Trinidad and Tobago, could not stop thinking about what happened.
As the anniversary approached, he filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal.
The restaurant said it had seen an influx of dine-and-dash incidents, and that it asked customers who weren’t « regulars » to prepay, according to the ruling .
But adjudicator Esi Codjoe said she found no evidence such a policy was real.
