Thursday, October 6, 2011
News: Apt For Rent: Muslims Only
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The National Post takes on a subject that many have noticed in the Kijiji rental ads: Listings inviting applicants from specific ethnic or demographic groups.
There’s a two bedroom basement apartment for rent in Toronto’s northwest end —one bathroom, newly painted and renovated with a side entrance. The ad, posted on popular classified site Kijiji.ca, comes with the typical caveats —no pets allowed, no smokers. And then, a less common request: Only Muslims need apply.See the National Post Article "Landlords face no punishment for discrimination in online ads" for the full story.
It’s the exact kind of specifications the Ontario Human Rights Commission recently warned landlords against putting in their online classified ads —any denial of a prospective tenant due to race, ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age and disability, among other things, is grounds for discrimination according to the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s housing policy and the Ontario Human Rights Code.
But for all its condemnation of the practice, the commission this week said they can’t police these online ads, that it’s out of their hands.
Instead, a person would have to call up the prospective landlord and file a complaint if it is clear they were not considered for the apartment because they weren’t Muslim, for example, or Chinese, Korean or Japanese as one other Craigslist Vancouver ad said it would prefer the successful tenants to be.
Your thoughts?
This post was written by: Gord McCord
Gord McCord, webmaster at You Suck at Kijiji, makes fun of funny things on Kijiji. Do not take him too seriously. Also do not take yourself too seriously. Follow him on Twitter
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2 Responses to “News: Apt For Rent: Muslims Only”
October 20, 2011 at 4:01 AM
"Apt for rent: Non smoking, no pets, white Christians only..."
An ad like the one above would go over as sucessful as a white pride parade, and guaranteed it would be investigated and the writer hunted down and charged with some human rights violations.
I'm so sick of the pointing fingers when there's always 3 pointing back at themselves, but it seems that's how we've set things up in Canada.
Dare not offend any ethnic groups...
January 26, 2012 at 4:24 PM
This kind of ad will spark up a huge controversy. Rental owners should be a little more careful.
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