Toronto landlord will only rent apartment to people who speak a specific language. Do you agree? why or why not?

[Contrarian]

Housing policy expert Varun Sriskanda flagged a rental ad for a basement apartment to his social media following, alleging racism in the listing and suggesting it's just the tip of the iceberg of widespread housing discrimination in Ontario.

And for $1,500 per month, it's actually quite a steal compared to the Toronto average of $2,457 for a one-bedroom unit in December 2022.

But if you think you can just waltz in and sign a lease, you're going to have to check a very specific box that the broker has made a point of including in the listing, stating that the homeowner is "looking for Mando/Canto [Mandarin/Cantonese] speaker tenants so no language barriers."

Rest of the story is here: 
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2023/01/94-earlton-road-toronto/

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I think is ridiculous to put an ad like this in public, there are ways if you have issues with the language, he could contact people in his own community and they can assist to find students which speak his language to rent. There are always students that speak Mandarin and Cantonese that are looking for places to rent. You could also set up phone interviews to see about the language barrier if communication is possible. I mean in 2023 you can have a conversation just by holding 2 phones and speaking 2 different languages. The device will translate it for you. 

---> Anyone else has a different perception than mine? I started a poll. 

Edited January 20 by Contrarian

[TreeBeard]

At first I thought “that discriminatory bastard”!  But then I thought “would I rent to someone who didn’t speak English”?   The answer is no, I would not.  I probably wouldn’t put that in the ad, but I would want to be able to communicate directly to a renter.   I couldn’t do that if they only spoke French.

The ad saves people time, as he wasn’t going to rent to them anyway. 

Would you rent to someone who didn’t speak any English?

[dialamah]

32 minutes ago, TreeBeard said:

At first I thought “that discriminatory bastard”!  But then I thought “would I rent to someone who didn’t speak English”?   The answer is no, I would not.  I probably wouldn’t put that in the ad, but I would want to be able to communicate directly to a renter.   I couldn’t do that if they only spoke French.

The ad saves people time, as he wasn’t going to rent to them anyway. 

Would you rent to someone who didn’t speak any English?

I had the same response - indignation, followed by acknowledging that a language barrier could lead to problems.  But making it that public was probably mistake on the landlord's part, there would be other ways to determine if the potential tenant spoke Mandarin/cantonese.  And the doesn't say anything about ethnicity, only language - so theoretically it's open to any color of person who speaks a language the landlord would understand.

Though I'd be inclined to ask why the landlord doesn't speak English and/or French.  

[TreeBeard]

22 minutes ago, dialamah said:

Though I'd be inclined to ask why the landlord doesn't speak English and/or French.  

It is likely a case that they’re not comfortable conversing in English as it is their 2nd language.  

[SpankyMcFarland]

2 hours ago, TreeBeard said:

At first I thought “that discriminatory bastard”!  But then I thought “would I rent to someone who didn’t speak English”?   The answer is no, I would not.  I probably wouldn’t put that in the ad, but I would want to be able to communicate directly to a renter.   I couldn’t do that if they only spoke French.

The ad saves people time, as he wasn’t going to rent to them anyway. 

Would you rent to someone who didn’t speak any English?

French and English aren’t that far apart. I’ve never met a French-speaking person I couldn’t communicate with. 

[TreeBeard]

56 minutes ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

French and English aren’t that far apart. I’ve never met a French-speaking person I couldn’t communicate with. 

I met a lot of them in France. 

[Army Guy]

4 hours ago, TreeBeard said:

At first I thought “that discriminatory bastard”!  But then I thought “would I rent to someone who didn’t speak English”?   The answer is no, I would not.  I probably wouldn’t put that in the ad, but I would want to be able to communicate directly to a renter.   I couldn’t do that if they only spoke French.

The ad saves people time, as he wasn’t going to rent to them anyway. 

Would you rent to someone who didn’t speak any English?

Any way you look at it it is dicrimination....be it for language, short , tall, girl or boy...and since it is in the ad not to hard to prove, now if you interviewed each and picked the ones you wanted to rent to, it would be harder to prove discrimination...

There are plenty of examples of this very discrimination  in Ontario, some new developments will only accept Muslims, for what ever reasons, and some how are not challenged by anyone .. in fear of getting canceled, i remember a lengthy post here on the forum about it.

It takes a few seconds to have documentation translated on any computer, who cares what language they speak as long as they abide by the rental contract and pay rent on time. 

 

[Army Guy]

1 hour ago, TreeBeard said:

I met a lot of them in France. 

I found them to be very stuck up, full of themselves, like the world revolved around France some how... 

[SpankyMcFarland]

1 hour ago, TreeBeard said:

I met a lot of them in France. 

I didn’t but I’ve only been in Paris. How many have you met in Canada like that? 

[TreeBeard]

Just now, SpankyMcFarland said:

I didn’t but I’ve only been in Paris. How many have you met in Canada like that? 

A few in rural Quebec. 

[TreeBeard]

10 minutes ago, Army Guy said:

Any way you look at it it is dicrimination....

I would discriminate against everyone in the world, except the ones who I can communicate clearly, if I were renting out my place.  I’m ok with that. 

[SpankyMcFarland]

18 minutes ago, Army Guy said:

I found them to be very stuck up, full of themselves, like the world revolved around France some how... 

I don’t know who got wind of my arrival but I only met friendly people in Paris (and New York). They were like actors from Amy in Paris. I’d start haltingly with, “ou se trouve l’office de poste..”, in my best Franglais and a stranger would interject, “oh, the post office, sir, this way”. It was a bit weird. Istanbul was much the same when I got lost in a very run down neighbourhood. Their language sounds like Klingon so we were communicating with gestures. It restores your faith in humanity a bit. 

Edited January 20 by SpankyMcFarland
,

[TreeBeard]

7 minutes ago, Army Guy said:

I found them to be very stuck up, full of themselves, like the world revolved around France some how... 

I didn’t find that at all.  Some just didn’t speak English.  Maybe it was you?

The French in the northern part of the country  still adore any Canadian, just for being Canadian, due to WWII. 

[Army Guy]

20 hours ago, TreeBeard said:

I didn’t find that at all.  Some just didn’t speak English.  Maybe it was you?

The French in the northern part of the country  still adore any Canadian, just for being Canadian, due to WWII. 

Maybe it was me, most i interacted with were French military, they would look down on anyone not an officer, or from France, take what they wanted out of your shopping cart while at the Canadian PX, taste stuff at the grocery store then put the lid back on and put in back on the shelve, French officers are allowed to beat regular soldiers, for minor offenses, did not go over so well with Canadian soldiers they found out pretty quick, that we hit back...

Mind you i was not a tourist, and routinely interacted with them on fall NATO exercise, or when we trained in France, or took a French military course. 

We also did many trips along the coast going to Canadian battle fields and grave sites, and found the Dutch looked after our interned troops much better, for the Dutch it was an honor to the French it was a job. 

[Army Guy]

22 hours ago, TreeBeard said:

I would discriminate against everyone in the world, except the ones who I can communicate clearly, if I were renting out my place.  I’m ok with that. 

Apparently that is not what the law says, But hey you do you...

[SpankyMcFarland]

2 hours ago, Army Guy said:

taste stuff at the grocery store then put the lid back on and put in back on the shelve,

That’s fairly standard in Canada. The other day in the produce section the guy  beside me was just munching away on the grapes. 

[Army Guy]

2 hours ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

That’s fairly standard in Canada. The other day in the produce section the guy  beside me was just munching away on the grapes. 

I could see grapes, to be honest i might have have stolen a few myself ..but what about sticking your finger into a peanut butter jar, taking a big scope then putting the cap back on and putting it back on the shelve... sometimes it was so bad you had to make sure by opening the jar up before putting it in your cart, save yourselves from coming back for a refund...

Sorry even French Canadians did not like the troops from France ...it did not help when those France boys told our Quebec boys they did not speak proper french ... and forget about the Acadians..

[TreeBeard]

5 hours ago, Army Guy said:

Apparently that is not what the law says, But hey you do you...

Language is not a protected class.   

[Zeitgeist]

I guess the landlord is trying to make a point about how few recent immigrants speak one of our official languages.  Unfortunately he won’t find many tenants.

[Army Guy]

54 minutes ago, TreeBeard said:

Language is not a protected class.   

Tell that to Quebec...or NB...

[Nationalist]

I rented a place out to immigrants who did not speak English (Gypsies newly arrived).

I did it because I "felt" it would be the "nice" thing to do. The..."righteous" thing to do. Besides...they had a letter from social services guaranteeing the rent.

I was very happy when they left. I'll never do it again.

[TreeBeard]

1 hour ago, Nationalist said:

I rented a place out to immigrants who did not speak English (Gypsies newly arrived).

I did it because I "felt" it would be the "nice" thing to do. The..."righteous" thing to do. Besides...they had a letter from social services guaranteeing the rent.

I was very happy when they left. I'll never do it again.

Having a landlord who uses racial slurs might have been difficult for them.  Do you think they’re happy to be gone too?

[Nationalist]

30 minutes ago, TreeBeard said:

Having a landlord who uses racial slurs might have been difficult for them.  Do you think they’re happy to be gone too?

The Gypsies were Gypsies for hundreds of years. In Czech the term is Cikani.

I asked a Gypsie, years ago when they were adopting the name "Roma", about all this. His answer told me all I needed to know.

"Look at me. I'm a Gypsie. I am not even sure what a "Roma" is."

Try not being such a sopping wet old rag...

[TreeBeard]

1 minute ago, Nationalist said:

The Gypsies were Gypsies for hundreds of years. In Czech the term is Cikani.

I asked a Gypsie, years ago when they were adopting the name "Roma", about all this. His answer told me all I needed to know.

"Look at me. I'm a Gypsie. I am not even sure what a "Roma" is."

Try not being such a sopping wet old rag...

Yeah….  I suspect your tenants  were happy to have moved on….  

Edited January 31 by TreeBeard

[Nationalist]

1 minute ago, TreeBeard said:

Yeah….  I suspect your tenants  were happy to have moved on….  

Sigh...actually...they made us Gypsie dinners every time my wife and I visited to collect their rent, and fed us beer and wine as well. It was a bit awkward because of the language barrier, but Gypsie cooking is awesome.

After they left, they contacted me repeatedly about another rental I have. But I'm done with welfare cases.