A Prince George woman was shocked and offended last week after a hotel chain dismissed her online application, mistakenly believing she wasn't a Canadian citizen.
Chandra Scopie had applied for a housekeeper position available at the Sandman hotel.
After receiving a standard response that her application had been received, Scopie said she got another email the next morning.
"We require all applicants hold Permanent Residence Status in Canada or hold an OPEN Work Permit valid for more than one year," said the message from a Sandman Jobs email account.
"We are not sponsoring any new LMIAs at this time."
LMIAs,or Labour Market Impact Assessments are used for employers to hire non-Canadian workers.
Scopie, who was born and raised in Prince George, said she quickly sent an email response letting the unnamed person behind the initial email know of their error.
"That's pretty, not only racist, but you're just assuming that I am foreign. It's obvious they didn't even look at my resume," Scopie said.
"Chandra is an East Indian name, given that, but if you looked at my resume, I just graduated university, I have that I've been working in Canada for five years on my resume."
The response Scopie received later that afternoon didn't leave her with confidence that her CV had been properly reviewed.
"Unfortunately if you do not enter your basic education (high school) on your resume, we have no way of identifying you (sic) are new to Canada or not," said the email from Sandman's recruitment officer in the Lower Mainland.
Scopie, who graduated from UNBC with a degree in psychology in May and attended Kelly Road secondary school, said job applicants shouldn't have to list their high school on their resumes once they've completed a post-secondary degree simply to prove their citizenship.
"I was so offended. I was just so mad about it," said Scopie, who noted she came forward not out of a need for an apology, but because she was concerned others may have been improperly screened out of potential job opportunities.
According to the Sandman Hotel Group, Scopie's case was a one-off.
"I can understand why she found it offensive," said human resources manager Treva Gardner, offering an apology for Scopie's situation.
Resumes received online are vetted by the head office before being sent to individual properties, Gardner said.
"For any position posted, we probably get 100 to 200 (applicants) from the Philippines, India and Jamaica. And for those, we have to weed them out so we can get the Canadians into the position and the managers onsite don't spend hours going through resumes that they're not going to be able to hire," Gardner said.
The person responsible for sending Scopie those emails has been spoken to and some additional coaching will happen, Gardner said, adding Scopie's resume has since been forwarded to the Prince George hotel.
"We're a multicultural business and practice diversity in all aspects," said Gardner.
