Judge finds Canadian Tire staff falsely imprisoned but didn’t threaten professor
TORONTO — A judge has ruled that a University of Toronto professor was falsely imprisoned at a Canadian Tire, but rejected claims that staff had threatened him and caused him to injure himself after leaving the store.
Steve Mann, a pioneer in wearable computer technology, filed a suit against the Canadian Tire Corporation and a single Canadian Tire location over a series of events that took place at the store in downtown Toronto on July 16, 2014.
Mann claimed that, when security sensors went off as he exited the store, staff stopped him from leaving, threatened to harm or kill him and demanded that he delete a video he was taking on his phone, show them his ID and give them his phone number.
In a decision issued Aug. 3, Judge Suhail Akhtar said security camera footage and video of the events taken by Mann himself showed that he was never threatened by staff.