Despite the fact that HBC sent a letter to Zellers workers asking them not to speak to the media, some workers are exercising their right to freedom of speech and sharing their personal experiences of the Target takeover and Zellers closures. See this story in the Toronto Star. It notes that Walmart acted differently when it took over Woolco stores in 1994. There are likely a number of reasons for the difference in corporate behaviour, including a perception that the Canadian government and people will tolerate such behaviour and the great number of resulting job losses now, but wouldn’t in the mid-1990s. The current Canadian government is clearly comfortable with Zellers’/HBC’s and Target’s decisions, but I believe the Canadian people still think we deserve better.