Richmond city council has cancelled the business licence of one of three Richmond locations of Tokyo Beauty.
This follows several warnings from Health Canada that the business, owned by Nagoya Trading, was selling illegal products, including Pabron Gold A, which contains dihydrocodeine phosphate, an opiate, that falls under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Last year, city council gave a three-month suspension to the Westminster Highway location after a similar Health Canada advisory.
Lawyers for Tokyo Beauty argued that a business licence cancellation was a “disproportionate and unwarranted” sanction, and they suggested it would be more proportionate to have a rehabilitation plan with compliance audits.
Articling student Matthew Remedios, speaking on behalf of Tokyo Beauty, called the Health Canada violations “isolated incidents” and said there were “immediate corrective actions” taken.
He called the hearing an “adversarial approach” using “outdated information.”
He also noted Tokyo Beauty has put into place various employee procedures to enhance safety and compliance.
Remedios suggested the city shouldn’t be just relying on Health Canada reports; rather, they should have done their own investigation.
Some city councillors took exception to this suggestion, with Coun. Bill McNulty saying it seems like Tokyo Beauty is “blaming” city council.
Furthermore, the city’s director of bylaws, Mark Corrado, noted they did a thorough investigation.
Corrado said the “delay,” from March to this week’s hearing, was due to city staff meeting with other officials to ensure there weren’t any conflicts with other investigations.
The conclusion, he noted, was that it was the city’s responsibility to consider the cancellation of the business licence.
“That’s the key point for deconfliction,” he said. “We didn’t want to step on their toes if they were going to remove the licence.”
Donald Howieson, the city’s lawyer, said Tokyo Beauty’s legal representatives “conflated” the city’s role with that of Health Canada in suggesting the city should have inspected the business premises to find out whether they’re in compliance or not with Health Canada.
“We don’t do follow-up investigations on their roles,” he added.
Vote to cancel licence unanimous
City council held the hearing on Monday afternoon, and unanimously voted to close the Hazelbridge Way location of Tokyo Beauty. (Coun. Chak Au declared a conflict and didn’t participate in the hearing.)
Coun. Kash Heed said his main concern is the opioid that was found in one of the products, and he would have preferred to cancel the business licence of all three Tokyo Beauty stores in Richmond.
Coun. Laura Gillanders called the issue a “very serious matter,” and added she felt the presentation from Tokyo Beauty’s defence team was “just minimizing the seriousness of the allegations.”
Gillanders noted that last year’s suspension of Tokyo Beauty’s business licence at its Westminster Highway location was a “big warning,” but it “didn’t serve its purpose” as the same products showed up again.
“It didn’t keep the city safe, consumers still had these very dangerous products available to them, and so, absolutely, cancellation of the licence is warranted,” she added.
She also said the company’s actions to rectify the situation are focused on “employee compliance,” but it should be the company’s responsibility.
“This goes much higher than that and if this sends Nagoya Trading a message that they need to stop importing illegal products and putting them on shelves at various stores across Richmond, that’s absolutely what we need to do,” she said.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie said Tokyo Beauty is “lucky” that only one store was being shut down.
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