MONTREAL - Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal has slammed a Terrebonne strip club bar owner with a $12,000 fine, to be split evenly among four black men who complained after they were refused entry to the O’Gascon Gentlemen’s Club on July 5, 2006.
The ruling, dated March 5, ruled that the men were refused entry due to the fact that they are black.
The decision is the first victory for the Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights (CDPDJ) in a case of racial profiling practiced by a commercial establishment.
Four Haitian men - two of whom are Montreal police officers - were greeted as any other patron, as a doorman asked them for an entry fee.
But then a second doorman arrived and asked them to present two pieces of identification each.
One of the four, a 38-year-old, did not have any identification and the entire group was refused entry as a result.
The court ruled that the behaviour was prejudicial as it is not normal custom to require two pieces of identification and the first doorman had already agreed to accept the four men.
