Few cultural stereotypes are more pervasive than the surly French waiter.

In the 1985 movie “European Vacation,” Chevy Chase and his family meet a Parisian garçon who, after insulting the brood, offers them dishwater to drink.

And who can forget the scene from Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life” when a French waiter, faced with his unfulfilling existence, swears at the camera then turns for home?

Well, in Canada recently, Guillaume Rey, a waiter at Milestones Bar + Grill in Vancouver, British Columbia, filed a complaint against the restaurant’s parent company, Cara Operations, after he was fired for being combative, aggressive and something of a bully. His defense? He’s not rude, he contends. Instead, he’s French and his former bosses are discriminating against his culture and heritage.

The argument is a novel one, but with enough traction that one member of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal who reviewed the complaint agreed that Mr. Rey deserves a hearing. Devyn Cousineau wrote in her March 7 decision that Mr. Rey would have to provide “evidence about what exactly the stereotype is with respect to people from France.”