A beauty shop in Richmond has had its business licence suspended for 90 days by city council after a product containing codeine – an opioid - was found by Health Canada on its shelves.
Richmond city staff had recommended a 30-day suspension, but several city councillors noted the seriousness of the infractions and the fact this was the third time Tokyo Beauty, at Westminster Highway and Cooney Road, had been found selling illegal products.
Coun. Alexa Loo clarified with city staff the fact the recommendation to suspend the licence came after a media report about the infractions.
In fact, the Richmond News reported in September on Tokyo Beauty being caught by Health Canada selling a product containing codeine.
“It opens the door for the media to find their pet favourite group that they don’t want to be in business – or they want to abuse – and then we’re policing it after the fact, instead of having a proper process to make sure it’s applied fairly to everyone,” Loo told city council at a special meeting held to look at suspending the business licence.
It was Coun. Kash Heed who suggested the suspension be 90 days, up from the 30 days recommended by city staff.
“If we want to send a deterrent to other stores that are doing it, we need to send a message right now that opioids and these other products that are illegal products - that lead to a crisis in our community - we send the message now,” Heed said.
The Health Canada advisory said there were nine unauthorized products at Tokyo Beauty, one of which contained Dihydrocodeine phosphate, similar to the opioid codeine.
Coun. Laura Gillanders called the matter “very serious.”
“Canada has standards for a reason, and people have to know if they’re going to a store in Canada, that they’re buying a product that is safe,” she said.
Charlene Zhu, a representative of the store asked city council not to suspend the licence, saying the number of products were a “tiny proportion of the overall inventory.”
“Suspending our licence would severely impact our employees and their families,” Zhu said.
“We kindly request our business licence not be suspended as we’ve already corrected our mistakes and obtained the support and consent of Health Canada."
Zhu noted the company is committed to the community, gives some free products to single mothers and does 200 hours of volunteer service a year.
While the mayor, Loo and Coun. Chak Au were against increasing the suspension from 30 days to 90 days, in the end, only Au voted against the suspension, noting the effect it would have on employees.
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