"Indigenous grandfather and 12-year-old handcuffed in front of Vancouver bank after trying to open an account", 9 January 2020

Johnson... and his granddaughter were using government-issued Indian Status cards, his birth certificate and her medical card [to open a bank account with Bank of Montreal]... [T]he employee then told them to come upstairs to retrieve their identification... [there they saw] police walking toward them... "They came over and grabbed me and my granddaughter, took us to a police vehicle and handcuffed both of us, told us we were being detained and read us our rights," Johnson said.

"Although there were some mitigating circumstances, they do not excuse the way in which we handled the situation," [Bank of Montreal] said in a statement... "We value our long and special relationship with Indigenous communities. Recently, an incident occurred that does not reflect us at our best. We deeply regret this and unequivocally apologize to all. We are reviewing what took place, how it was handled and will use this as a learning opportunity. We understand the importance and seriousness of this situation at the highest levels of the bank."... "If I have to go to court to make this right, not only for myself but for every First Nations person that's been discriminated against by a bank or a big store or something like that, I will." [Johnson said]... Experts say what happened to Johnson is part of what they call a rise in "commercial racial profiling."