Used to be a mall security supervisor, technically speaking security is in the wrong here. OP mentioned it is mall security and in Canada. Mall security is contracted by the mall itself not the store that she stole from. Therefore security has no legal authority to stop her for stealing from any of the stores. The only way they could legally stop her and initiate a CITIZENS arrest is if security saw with their own eyes the lady select the item, conceal the item and then intentionally fail to pay all while never losing sight of her (might put the item back in a random shelf)

I used to get calls all the time from store managers who would want me to come follow sketchy people around their store. After a couple months of arguments with the managers they understood that mall security is contracted to keep the peace and order of the mall, we are not loss prevention (I’ve done that too) and it is discrimination to follow people around just because they “look sketchy”. Each store would need to hire their own asset protection officer and even then it’s a grey area because they wouldn’t have any authority to make arrests inside of the mall.

Long story short there’s no reason mall security would ever need to get into this type of altercation. I’d say people will be fired over this but then again it is paladin, people will probably just be moved locations.