As a Verdun resident, Fred Christie follows the Habs, as do a legion of other Quebecers. The Montrealer is even a proud season-ticket holder.

Accompanied by two friends, Mr. Christie enters the tavern at the Canadiens' hockey area, plunks down some cash and orders a few beers. The bartender refuses to serve him. The assistant manager then explains to his would-be customers that the establishment extends no courtesy to Negroes.

It is 1936. July 11, 1936.

The protagonist had resided in the Métropole for over 20 years. Mr. Christie converted to the cult of ice hockey even though the NHL had barred all coloured players. Although Mr. Christie, a Jamaican immigrant, integrated himself into Canadian culture and acclimatized himself to his adopted country, he was not treated like other customers.

Long before Canada's "multiculturalism mantra," this was an everyday scenario played out in Toronto, Calgary, Nova Scotia... just about everywhere in the Great "White" North. Aboriginals, Asians and Africans-descendants suffered overt discrimination at will.

During the hostility at le Forum de Montréal's tavern, Mr. Christie tried to explain to the manager that this race-based rule was unfair. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Mr. Christie then called the police, which only served to add insult to injury. Humiliated, Fred and his friends left the tavern thirst unquenched and empty-handed. Like most Afro-Canadians in Montreal, Mr. Christie knew which shops and theatres avoid, which jobs were denied to him, and which neighbourhoods were forbidden to "Negroes." After all, the city was then a sanctum of segregation.

But, for the man who felt at home in the Temple du Hockey, the tavern's racist rule was the straw that broke the camel's back. Fred Christie filed a discrimination case against the York corporation to court. Despite registering multiple setbacks, Christie's case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

On December 9, 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) rendered its final decision.

It ruled that the general principle of the law in Québec is complete freedom of business. As long as a merchant did not break the law, he or she was free to refuse any member of the public on any grounds.