1 week ago
Swift News
A Vancouver Island food market will be paying six women $750,000 after reaching a settlement in a class-action lawsuit against them and a former employee who was found to have secretly recorded women in the store’s bathroom. The $750,000 settlement will be split among the six plaintiffs in the suit, with different amounts allocated between five whose recorded images were distributed on the internet, and one whose images were recorded but not distributed, according to Sean Hern, one of the lawyers representing the class. He also noted that another undisclosed amount was donated by the five in the first group to charity in recognition of some victims who were recorded but not identified.
In a court decision from 2023, the two plaintiffs, Jennifer Madill and Mallory Fulmore, described a pattern of predatory behaviour from Matthew Schwabe and other male employees of the Red Barn Market at Mattick’s farm in Saanich, including Schwabe’s father Samuel, who was part owner of the business at the time. According to Madill in the decision, Matthew Schwabe would “very often” say that “he could not help” making comments about the clothing and appearances of female workers due to the fact that he was “surrounded by a bunch of hot young girls in tight pants.” One former employee, referred t0 as K.B., summarized the atmosphere at the shop as “a sexualized environment”, with the owners and male managers “commenting on young women’s bodies and generally making sexualized remarks” or “innuendo”, adding that Samuel Schwabe made “lewd comments about younger girls.” In another undisputed incident, an affidavit from another former employee, named as C.J., noted that in 2013, Schwabe approached her and attempted to converse with her while exposing his penis. She said he “remained standing, blocking the only entrance and exit” and tried to converse with her for another five minutes or so with his penis exposed.