Exclusive club in Toronto fined $35K for telling man with autism he required supervision at all times
CTV
The family of a prominent Toronto artist with autism is speaking out after one of the city’s oldest private clubs demanded he be supervised at all times while using the facilities – a decision that prompted the artist to file a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
The family of a prominent Toronto artist with autism is speaking out after one of the city’s oldest private clubs demanded he be supervised at all times while using the facilities – a decision that prompted the artist to file a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
The Granite Club, a private athletics club located in North York, told 20-year-old Niam Jain he would require supervision while using the facility after a 2020 incident between Jain and another club member in one of the facility's locker rooms. Jain says the club’s investigation of the incident and subsequent findings needlessly robbed him of his dignity.
So, Jain and his mother, Nina, filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. A recent decision handed down by the tribunal sides with the Jain family, stating the club failed to accommodate the artist’s disability – largely because its staff misunderstood a common autistic behaviour.
“We felt this was undermining all of his achievements, his hard work, and his efforts to be independent,” Nina said.
Jain had been attending the club for two years before the aforementioned incident.
On Feb. 10, 2020, a club member testified he found Jain going through his bags, naked, while making a strange sound. The member, Andrew Gage, asked him to stop and accused Jain of crude behaviour.
