Director of B.C. massage school must pay $12K after asking client to 'certify' he's not Muslim
CTV
The director of a B.C. massage school has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars for discriminatory comments she made to a Muslim man who wanted to book a treatment.
The director of a B.C. massage school has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars for discriminatory comments she made to a Muslim man who wanted to book a treatment.
In a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision posted online last week, tribunal member Devyn Cousineau determined Joyce Middleton discriminated against Majid Shahadat in 2019. That discrimination continued, Cousineau said, throughout the tribunal's resolution process.
The tribunal heard Shahadat is a Muslim man who was born in Bahrain and is of mixed Arab and Indian descent.
"He has lived in Canada for 25 years and describes himself as a 'proud Canadian,'" Cousineau wrote.
Shahadat reached out to Northern School of Spa Therapies, located in Fort St. John, in 2019 to book a lymphatic drainage massage. The response he got, Cousineau said, left him "understandably shocked and hurt."
Hours after booking his appointment online, Shahadat got an email from Middleton, asking him for his "credentials."
"We rarely accept new clients outside the area of Fort St. John for our own protection. I am asking you to certify you are not of the Islamic faith, which as you know has earned a bad reputation for raping and killing of infidels in Canada and elsewhere," the email sent to Shahadat said. "I apologize, this is not meant to be offensive, but I have to be watchful over my students as I am sure you will be able to understand."
