"Look directly on my nose and don't blink", she sprung off her chair and commanded me as I put on my brand new pair of Hugo Boss eyeglasses at Sight N' Steps. I complied. She brought her red marker straight into my pupils and drew a few geometrical lines on eyeglasses. I felt she was holding her breath to gain a precision of a sniper; lest her hands shake and cause her to miss her target. I reluctantly sat there, fully in compliance and let her finish.

As I walked out of Sight N' Steps, I felt I had been fooled the last time I purchased prescription eyeglasses from an online retailer because they didn't do any of what Lori, the licensed Optician at Sight N’ Steps did. That explained the worsening of my eyesight. This exercise made me look further; and here is what I found.

Your Optician to your prescription eyeglasses is like your pharmacist to your prescription drugs. They both need specific schooling, they both need license to dispense prescription products in Canada and they both must adhere to specific practices set out by various professional and legislative governing bodies. In Canada (with an exception of the Province of British Colombia), it is illegal to dispense prescription eyeglasses for any person who is not a licensed optician. The online retailers found some loophole in the system to circumvent this legislation.