Assault on Manitoba retail worker renews calls for more employee safety

Minister of Labour and Immigration Malaya Marcelino speaks at a press conference in Winnipeg, Friday, May 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

WINNIPEG — An attack on a cannabis store employee who was working alone at night has renewed calls for improved worker safety in Manitoba.

Police say a man entered the retail store Tuesday night, waited for a customer to leave, and then locked himself inside with a woman working alone.

They say he sexually assaulted the 24-year-old woman, who fled the store uninjured and contacted police, who later arrested a suspect.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union says cannabis stores pose special problems, because they sell a controlled substance and are required by government rules to cover all windows to the outside.

The union is calling for changes that include removing window coverings, banning solo work, and installing panic buttons.

The Manitoba government says it is willing to consider new measures, and is expecting recommendations soon from a workplace safety advisory council that has been looking at violence prevention.

“There’s a process and this is something that is still under consideration at this time,” Malaya Marcelino, the province’s labour minister, said.

The union surveyed cannabis store workers last year and said only eight per cent of respondents felt safe all the time at work. Its proposed changes also include controlled entrances, which already exist at government liquor stores.

The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce said retailers in all sectors want to ensure safety and many have invested in cameras, panic buttons and other crime-prevention measures.

Business owners are willing to look at other steps, but the government should also consider allowing cannabis stores to uncover their windows so that workers are not hidden from public view, chamber president Loren Remillard said.

Any requirement to require at least two workers on duty at all times could be challenging, as some retailers are already having a hard time finding workers, he added.

“It’s easy to say ‘just have more staff’, but we have to ask where is that staff coming from. It is a challenging environment right now,” Remillard said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2026.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press