he City of Vancouver has apologized for an incident last month in which a group of low-income seniors was asked to leave a shopping plaza during a tai chi meetup.

According to witnesses, mall staff made culturally insensitive comments and attempted to physically stop the seniors from practising the Chinese martial art in the Chinatown Plaza Mall — which is owned by the city and managed by EasyPark — on the morning of May 26.

“It was sad and heartbreaking to see,” said Sean Cao with the Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, who organizes the bi-weekly tai chi meetups.