The Kijiji listing for a “totally renovated” three-bedroom unit in Brampton was indistinguishable from the countless posts that fill the classified site every day — with one obvious exception.

In addition to plugging the unit’s proximity to transit and its new kitchen, the poster wrote, “no black men please,” adding “sorry.”

The listing, posted September 16, also noted that a “small family” was preferred and a renter would be required to provide a letter of employment.

According to Jennifer Ramsay, communications and external relations co-ordinator at the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, the posting was in clear violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and not only because of its racial rule. The posting also violated the code in two less obvious ways, Ramsay said.

“You can’t limit a family,” Ramsay said. “You can’t say, ‘We only want one child or two children,’ unless it violates the actual municipal standards,” Ramsay said.

The Ontario Human Rights Code guarantees “every person . . . a right to equal treatment with respect to the occupancy of accommodation,” and prohibits discrimination on the basis of a variety of grounds, including, race, “family status,” and “the receipt of public assistance.”

“You can’t discriminate against people if they’re in receipt of social assistance,” Ramsay said, referring to the post’s request for an employment letter. “You can’t say, ‘You have to have a job.’ ”

Ramsay said the support centre would file a human rights claim on behalf of anyone who makes a complaint related to the unit.

Shawn McIntyre, community relations manager for Kijiji, said the listing was flagged by the site’s users and taken down by staff on Wednesday.

“That type of ad is not welcome on Kijiji,” said McIntyre, who said users who spot offending posts should notify the site.

In a section of its website devoted to its “Equality in Housing Policy,” Kijiji asks users to “follow appropriate guidelines to comply with the human rights legislation that is in place in all of Canada’s provinces and territories.”

The site references laws prohibiting discrimination on several grounds, including age, “race or perceived race,” and “lawful source of income, including the receipt of public assistance.”

In an email, McIntyre added that “this user was sent a very detailed email explaining why their (posting) was removed, with a warning that any further attempt to post something of this nature will likely lead to a ban. The account is flagged on our end for monitoring.”

The posting included a phone number for “harry,” whom the Star reached on Wednesday. The man who answered the call confirmed he had posted the ad, but said he hadn’t actually written much of it — he claimed he had been looking online for information on renting, and had taken text from another source without carefully reading it.

“I really apologize,” he said. “I was copy pasting all the entire content from some other rental website.”

The posting came to Ramsay’s attention by way of the United States Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, after its staffer Bryan Greene received an email about the ad from a colleague.

“He said, ‘This ad’s going around Twitter. Can you guys look into it?’ ” Greene recalled.

Greene initially concluded that, based on the location, his office obviously could not take action on the posting. “Then I thought, well, you know, folks in Canada probably would be interested that this ad is out there.”

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Greene said his office sees similar ads “occasionally,” though ads that are so “directly discriminatory” are less common. “Five, six years ago? Ten years ago? Certainly,” said Greene.

Greene said “a range of discriminatory ads” were posted advertising housing to families leaving the New Orleans area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Though Greene could have ignored the posting as well outside of his responsibilities, he felt it demanded attention.

“Human rights are universal,” Greene said. “We wouldn’t want any black person anywhere in the world to experience this kind of treatment.”

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