The Law Has Ruled Against
Lease Discrimination Case
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ROSE FARRELL |
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
VANCOUVER - Rose Farrell of Colour Tech Hair Studio in Langley is disappointed that she will not have her day in court. The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a claim by Farrell and two other Caucasian tenants who had been ousted from West Willow Shopping Mall because of their race.
On October 13, 2007, Rose Farrell of Colour Tech Hair Studio, John Pook of Peter F. Pook Insurance, and Lynn Wallace of Frames West Gallery, long standing tenants of West Willow Mall in Langley, filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
They were advised that the leases on their businesses would not be renewed after H-Mart, a large Korean grocery chain, bought the mall.
In fact, they were informed their existing stores would be taken over by Korean businesses, catering to Korean customers and employing Korean speaking workers. Job postings for the grocery store were written in Korean only.
Rose Farrell had to relocate her hair salon to the Fraser Valley Shopping Mall at considerable expense. Along with moving and setting up in the new location, Farrell estimates that it has cost her approximately $90,000.
"Naturally I was surprised and disappointed with the judge's decision to deny a hearing to our case, based on insufficient evidence," Farrell said. "We believed at the time we had been discriminated against and we still do.
"However, the judge has ruled, wrongly or rightly, so there is no point of me trying to criticize her ruling, or argue this case through the media, that would be the wrong thing to do. We do have the option to take this case to the Supreme Court, however, that would be very costly and take years.
"I do feel that the system has let us down badly, although we do have many people to thank for their support during this past 14 months, from the B.C. Human Rights Coalition Group, who thought that we had a very good case, and to the general public at large, we are just so sorry that we couldn't get our day in court, we tried."
The real change that Farrell, Pook and Wallace were trying to bring about was to the leasing process, and they haven't been successful, because of the judge's ruling in the case.
"This situation will continue until the next person, will maybe take it to the Supreme Court," said Rose. "We haven't been able to change the law and that's disappointing. After all that we've been through for the past 14 months, it's disappointing to think that this could happen again to some other small business like mine. But, the judge has ruled and we must abide by that decision."
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