1-On March 9, 2006, a local anglo named John Rooney called in response to a For Rent ad in the Journal de Montreal, a 2 1/2 at 5731 Cartier, near des Carrieres.
French guy named Jules Bertiboni answers, janitor for 23 years at the building owned by Michel Persechino.
Rooney: "Is the two and a half still available?"
Bertiboni: "Non."
Rooney: "Why is there still an ad in the paper for it?"
Bertiboni: "Tu dois être une tapette!" (You must be a fag)
Bertiboni hung up.
Rooney called back but Bertiboni said nothing.
Rooney called back again. Bertiboni said nothing, but Rooney heard him tell someone, "Attend je parle avec un tapette." (Hold on, I'm talking to a fag).
Rooney got his niece Dana Vardon to call back and ask - in English - if the apartment was still available and Bertiboni confirmed that yes it was.
Rooney considered it a case of discrimination against him as a homosexual. He apparently became depressed and withdrawn after the troubling incident and went on medication, what medication, we're not sure.
Rooney took his case to the Human Rights Tribunal. Bertiboni said he didn't remember the conversation, he claimed he can't speak English (That's not a crime - Chimples). He denied ever making any such remarks.
Rooney had no proof of his claims. Yet the judge, in light of the conflicting testimonies decided that Rooney was more detailed and credible.
On March 17, 2009 the judge condemned Bertiboni to pay $4,000 to Rooney.
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2-Jean Brisson et Athena Tralemberg (Tralenberg?) were tenants in a fourplex in Terrebonne, owned Canadians of Haitian heritage Calerbe Coffy et Mireille Jules, who live at 3400 Licorne Street in Terrebonne.
On 1 July, 2005, the Haitian landlord Coffy showed up at his building and noticed that the couple had put up a sign for him to see. It read:
"Landlords go home! Proprios retournez chez vous!" There were Canadian and Quebec flags drawn in the background.
The landlord felt insulted and sent a legal notice asking the tenants to take it down. The tenants apparently left it up two weeks, as a way - they claimed - of telling the landlord that he wasn't welcome to come without the required 24 hour notice.
Brisson, who speaks English, says that he put it the sign up in response to aggressive behaviour displayed by the landlord. He told the Tribunal that there was no intent to invoke racist sentiment in his note.
On March 2, 2009, the tribunal ordered the tenants had to pay $1,500 to the landlords.
not sure I get it...why would the janitor be deciding who can get the appartment and get fined? And how is Brisson speaking English relevant?
ReplyDeleteKG, have you checked out what the various HRCs have actually been up to over the past decade?
ReplyDeletePaul
@Chuck - janitors routinely field calls to fill vacancies with orders to weed out anybody that sounds particularly weird. And Brisson spoke English to the judge, so maybe he can't even speak French at all, maybe that fed the communication difficulties between him and his francophone Haitian landlord. And to the other post - I haven't looked through them all, these are the most recent ones though, they don't do a helluva a lot of cases, why?
ReplyDeleteI was referring to things like http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/rex_murphy/human_rights_gone_awry.html
ReplyDeletePaul
Oh, can't watch that. We boycott Rex Murphy cuz he forced CBC to move the show Cross Country Checkup out of Montreal. That being said, I met him and talked to him once about 11 years ago and he was kind, a lot like you see on TV but without a lot more cigarettes.
ReplyDeleteI see you've added a bunch more stuff to the site today, please keep it up (or make that tortured monkey Chimples do it). Always entertaining, I miss Montreal.
ReplyDeletePaul