A Nigerian-born Canadian landlord has been fined $12,000 for failing to respect his Muslim tenants’ religion by not taking his shoes off when he entered their apartment.
John Alabi, 52, let out the first floor of his Brampton, Ontario, home to Walid Madkour and Heba Ismailin in December 2014. But after a few turbulent months, their lease was terminated on February 28, 2015.
The couple later took Alabi, who is a Christian, to court claiming he failed to accommodate their religious practices after he failed to take off his shoes when showing prospective tenants, and did not give them enough warning before visits.
And the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario agreed, ordering Alibi to pay his former tenants $6,000 each, the Toronto Sun reports.
“I was humiliated, I was made to feel I have no rights, I was made to feel that I’m not wanted in society,” Alabi told the Sun. “I feel powerless. They rented my place for only two months. Two months! It’s just not fair.”
Trouble began after the couple gave notice in February 2015.
Alabi, originally from Nigeria, needed to organize viewings for potential tenants but said he did everything he could to accommodate the Egyptian-born Muslim couple.
After they asked him not to interrupt their prayers, they prayed five times a day, he says he acquiesced and would plan his schedule around them.
He would also give them 24-hour notice before entering the home, which he was allowed to do by law.
But Alabi says the couple made more and more unreasonable demands.
The landlord said that Madkour has asked him not to arrange visits when his wife was home, to which Alabi refused, and had demanded he text them five minutes before he arrived.
Alabi said he had begun texting them before he arrived, but stopped after they failed to reply.
He says the tenants even called the police on him when he was shovelling snow outside their apartment, claiming it was harassment. Officers confirmed that Alabi was legally allowed to show their unit when they were there.
But Madkour and Ismailin gave a very different account.
They say they were harassed by Alabi who did not respect their faith.
In court documents, they say that they had asked Alabi to give them five minute warning to allow Ismailin time to cover up according to her faith.
At the tribunal, the couple said their landlord ignored their pleas to remove his shoes before entering the bedroom where they prayed. Entering the room with his shoes on meant extra cleaning for the couple.
But Alabi claims the couple never had a problem before when he wore his shoes to make repairs in the apartment, and said he wasn’t wearing proper shoes but just ones he wore around his own home.
He was stunned when Madkour and Ismailin filed a complaint against him eight months later.
“They are using their religion to victimise me,” he complained.
But the tribunal panel found in favour of his tenants, ruling he “discriminated against the applicants by failing to accommodate their religious practices,” tribunal panel vice-chair Jo-Anne Pickel wrote in the decision, seen by The Star.
“Unfortunately, attempts by Muslims to practice their faith have increasingly been interpreted as an attempt to impose their way of life on others.”
Alabi must now pay both the $12,000 and legal fees – something he says he can ill afford.
He added he only ever began renting out the place to pay his mortgage.
“I don’t have the money. I work very hard. If they go into my bank account right now, I don’t have $12,000 there,” Alabi said.
