‘We should know right?’ Winnipeg landlord defends asking potential tenant if he was ‘native’

21 thoughts on “‘We should know right?’ Winnipeg landlord defends asking potential tenant if he was ‘native’”

1. Racist, and illegal. I hope that the prospective tenant pursues this further, given that he has solid evidence of the racism. There seem to be quite a few landlords who do not respect the law with regards to Human Rights Act or any provincial residential tenancy acts, especially in the larger cities, even though they have an obligation to educate themselves if they choose to become landlords. I am SO sick of spoon-feeding information about tenant rights and landlord obligations to landlords. These people think that they can just go into renting out a place without looking into their legal obligations, and that it’s just going to be an opportunity to sit back and cash cheques, while shirking their duties. The only time they observe the law is when it benefits them.

   Even though racism is not an issue I’ve had to face, I have had to look for a place to rent while worrying about discrimination on the basis of disability and source of income (I don’t know about Manitoba, but I believe in at least some provinces, landlords cannot discriminate based on source of income, as long as it’s legal income, and may not even be able to ask for your employer information, as that question could out you as an income assistance recipient or as working in a line of work that they don’t approve of. They can always do a credit check, if they’re worried about your ability to pay).

2. The guy is obviously a complete and utterly ignorant uneducated imbecile, if he thinks Race or Nationality has any bearing on whether someone can pay their rent or not !

3. Total racist I believe every race had good and bad and we are not the ones to judge only god!

4. The Landlord (as a former landlord) does not have the right to ask anyone’s cultural identity, sexual orientation, religion etc. No matter how you look at it is discrimination. As a Landlord he can request access to references, credit history, employment history and past landlords and use that information to determine whether or not they will rent to any prospective tenant. Being Native, Black, Muslim, White or whichever has no bearing on a tenants ability to pay rent and respect the property owners property. Because of the Human Rights Act and the Landlord Tenant Act you as a Landlord must make your determination based on the available information you are allowed to ask for…period.

5. I think it’s every right of a landlord to know who his prospective tenent are however if they do proper reference checks and the person is employed and can follow the policies of the tenent agreement then who cares what nationality they are. …but the agreement then must be specific. ..no smoking no pets quiet after a certain hour etc….

6. Asking any question about an applicants nationality is a discriminatory and illegal act

7. A landlord should be able to know who they are renting to. They should know if they are employed and if so, where. They should know if they smoke or have pets and children or other people who will be staying there. Perhaps even know what their credit is like and what their previous landlords have to say about them. Where does race even factor in here? Why is this relevant? What information is he trying to get by knowing their race? Perhaps then they would also apply a bunch of stereotypes and pretend that it has anything to do with the individual at hand? As though knowing someone’s race can tell you anything about who the person is beyond their genetic structure and skin colour which is completely irrelevant in determining whether or not they will make a good tenant.

8. What is so ironic, is that the landlord sounds as though he is a Canadian Immigrant….did any one else notice the landlord’s accent?

9. in a way .. i kinda agree, but disagree at the same time. yes i think he has the right to know who lives in apt buildings. but he shouldnt ask “are you native?”.. he should ask.. “what nationality are you?”…. and he shouldn’t be so rude when asking too.. Well.. my opinion anyways..

   1. Even asking what nationality you are is violating our basic human rights.

      1. No, its not.

   2. He don’t need to nationality all he needs to know is this person responsible second im sure he would be able to tell when this guy came for review

   3. Asking about an applicants nationality is a discriminatory act and it’s illegal

10. I agree on landlords knowing who they are renting to, but asking if the person is native I think is very discriminating. There is a lot of questions a landlord can ask about finding if the tenant is a reliable person. the color of skin or a persons cultural background shouldn’t even be a question to ask.

11. This is a huge issue. Not only for the indigenous. Recently looking for rentals mainly in kijiji many post looking for or will give preference to ……. Living in a very cultural friendly city this is saddening also with the rental availability being in the minus. That’s not even if you consider affordable rentals. Good job making light of the issue at hand.

12. He has every right too….its his property.

    1. No, he doesn’t. It’s an illegal and discriminatory question

       1. Exactly , how the hell is someone’s race or nationality have any bearing on if and how he can pay his rent ? This guy is a complete ignorant idiot !

13. Is there no Human Rights Act in Manitoba? Surely there is…..

    1. Every province has a human right code. Then there is the federal legislation that covers human rights called the Canadian Charter on Human Rights and Freedoms.

    2. they do not accept complaints regarding racism for natives. i know. i was told that by a human rights worker about 7 years ago.

Comments are closed.