Stella's Head Office 116 Sherbrook Street  Winnipeg, MB R3C 2B4   204.788.1033   stellas.ca

Recently, Stella’s has become aware of activity by a few individuals on social media that is
critical of us. At Stella’s, we believe in freedom of expression and we accept that, as a family
business with over 500 employees in Manitoba, we must be held to a high standard of conduct.
We accept that constructive feedback must be used as a way to continuously improve. We also
believe that feedback should be fair and factual, and must respect the privacy and dignity of all
members of the Stella’s family, whether that be our amazing staff, customers, suppliers or
friends.
We do not believe that it would be constructive to try to publicly address matters raised in social
media. We believe that all concerned individuals deserve to be treated with utmost respect and
dignity, and their privacy must be respected. For those who are critical of us, we regret that we
have let you down. Please let us assure you that Stella’s is committed to creating a positive
environment for all members of the Stella’s family by doing our utmost to ensure that everyone –
employee, customer, supplier and friend – is treated with dignity and respect.
As an employer of over 500 amazing Manitobans, Stella’s has overall responsibility for creating
and maintaining a work environment within the Stella’s family that is free from discrimination
and harassment. We cannot do it alone; all of our employees have a personal responsibility for
conducting themselves in a professional, businesslike and caring manner at all times.
Harassment in any form – whether sexual, physical, psychological or otherwise – is not and will
not be tolerated within the Stella’s family. We expect all of our employees to be stewards of this
policy and to report any incidents of harassment as soon as possible. Our commitment at
Stella’s is to investigate all reports of harassment in a fair and timely manner, while protecting
the privacy of all parties as much as possible.
Stella’s has a harassment policy and procedures in place for dealing with these complaints. We
take them very seriously. Over the last 15 years, Stella’s has seen tremendous growth, and our
family has gotten so much bigger. With that growth comes responsibility, and we will continue to
work at making Stella’s a truly modern and egalitarian work culture. We are going to continue to
listen to our staff and to everyone who have taken the time to share their important views, and
we are going to continue to strive to train our managers and leaders so that they are equipped to
handle complaints of harassment in a timely, professional, sensitive, fair, and caring manner.
We have engaged People First HR Consultants, a qualified human resource consulting firm, to
review all of our policies and procedures on workplace safety and harassment and to make
recommendations to help us continuously improve. We will review and improve our training
practices so as to ensure that our management and staff receive the very best training in how to
handle complaints of harassment, including so as to ensure that there is clarity in the
organization as to how to safely report and deal with complaints of harassment. As part of our
review process, we will develop a communications plan for our employees that makes clear our
commitment to a safe workplace, and provides updates on this important initiative. We will also
be introducing a “whistle blower line” that all employees will have access to.
No matter your gender, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, you are welcome at Stella’s. We
want you to be safe and to feel safe, at Stella’s. We will always listen to feedback, whether

 positive or negative, and we will always strive to be a company that we – and we hope you – can
take pride in.

Sincerely

Tore Sohlberg & Lehla Abreder
Stella’s