Calgary man alleges racial stereotyping after group turned away from Cowboys nightclub

A Calgary man says he wants answers about why his group was turned away from a Stampede event put on by Cowboys nightclub on Sunday night.

Greg Yee and 19 friends paid nearly $6,000 for a special 20-person VIP suite to hear Fetty Wap and Big Sean on July 16 the final night of the Calgary Stampede.

But they didn't make it inside.

'We couldn't understand why?'

"We were all kind of just appalled, we couldn't understand why," said Yee, who works downtown in the oil and gas industry.

"We weren't really getting anything. They just kept pointing to a sign that said, 'Management reserves the right to refuse access,'" he said, adding the groupspent around an hour trying to get a clear explanation."

Yee says his group was comprised ofa mix of 30-something professional men and women with one thing in common: most of them were Asian.

He says he thinks racial stereotypes and profiling might have been behind the decision to refuse his group entry.

"There were 14 of us that were ethnic, there were six females, the majority of us were Asian. I think they just need to stop stereotyping, discriminating," said Yee.

"It's embarrassing. We're standing there, surrounded by doormen with people looking at us like we'd done something wrong when all we were trying to do was have a good time," he said.

'Something you just grow to accept'

"The past 20 years I've been dealing with it and it's just something you grow to accept," he added.

Yee'sfriend, Brad Leng, whoworked at Cowboys himselfin the past,says he was in complete shock.

"As much as I don't want to say it, I think it was because we were a big group and it wasn't a big white group," he said.

In a statement, Cowboys says the groupwasdenied entry because some members of the party were identified as what they would only call "potentially problematic."

Cowboys did not offer any further explanation of thatterm or confirm any clearer reason for refusing the group entry, but says ithasreached out to the affected group.

"Some of our longest and most loyal customers reflect our inclusiveness of all racial backgrounds," the company added.

Yee says the money for the VIP suite is being refunded, but he wants an apology, and a better explanation from Cowboys.

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