Starbucks Canada to provide inclusiveness training for corporate stores, offices
TORONTO — Starbucks will close all its Canadian company-operated stores and offices for an afternoon next month to provide training about creating a “culture of warmth and belonging.”
The announcement comes nearly a month after the Seattle-based company publicly apologized for the arrest of two black men who had been refused permission to use the washroom of a Starbucks coffee shop in Philadelphia.
A Philadelphia police spokesman said Starbucks employees called 911 after the men refused to leave.
The company last month ordered more than 8,000 U.S. Starbucks stores to close on the afternoon of May 29 so that nearly 175,000 employees can receive training on unconscious bias, but said at the time it had not decided whether to follow suit in Canada.