An Ottawa lawyer accuses Scotiabank of unjust customer profiling after his branch moved in December to terminate four accounts without explanation.

Gideon Christian claims he faced issues with Scotiabank since he first arrived in Canada. (CBC) Gideon Christian, 39, came to Ottawa from Nigeria in 2006 to study at the University of Ottawa. He recently earned a doctorate in law and is now an adjunct professor at the school.

Christian says his troubles with the bank go back to his first few weeks in the country, when he tried to open an account with his Nigerian passport and a host of other identifying documents from the university and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

He claims bank staff insisted he produce other documents he didn't have and couldn't immediately get. Christian says after he pushed back, they agreed to open an account.

Christian says he was asked to prove the money was his when he wanted to re-deposit funds he'd withdrawn the same day, for the purpose of converting them to Canadian dollars elsewhere at a better rate than Scotiabank.

"I have even had cases where a hold was placed on a cash deposit I made into my account," he wrote in an e-mail of complaint to Scotiabank. "Where on earth does a bank place a hold on (a) cash deposit?"

New branch, same problems

Christian switched branches at one point because of what he calls biased treatment he felt he was receiving, but he believes that treatment continued at his new branch and others around the city.

According to Christian the "last straw" for him came in December, when his branch at 700 Sussex Dr. sent him a letter telling him his accounts there would be terminated.

When he called the branch to ask why, he says he was "bluntly told" the bank was not obligated to provide a reason. But when he contacted the bank's head office in Toronto he was eventually told it was related to money transfers he had received from Nigeria.

"I have all the paperwork to show that these transactions were legitimate, but nobody wanted to hear about that," Christian says. "The decision was that the money is coming from Nigeria, Nigeria is a high-risk country, we have to terminate all the accounts.

"In providing services of this nature I think individuals should be dealt with as individuals and not part of statistics. If you start dealing with them as part of statistics that is profiling and that is very wrong."

Scotiabank declined CBC's request for an interview but in a statement, the bank said it is their policy to treat every customer fairly and with respect regardless of race or national origin.

The bank also says it "engaged in conversations" with Christian to find "mutually feasible solutions" to continue the relationship before deciding to close his accounts.

Christian denies such conversations took place and argues the bank never mentioned them when he complained about the termination notice.

Matter handled 'entirely poorly,' voice mail says

Scotiabank's statement also seems to be at odds with an earlier voice mail apology Christian received from Scotiabank's office of the president, telling him the branch "handled this matter entirely poorly."

Christian has now moved his funds to a new bank and is calling on Scotiabank to investigate its policies and make changes to prevent other customers from being mistreated.

Christian is also considering filing a human rights complaint.

Benjamin Piper, a lawyer with Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, says such a complaint is a viable option even though bank contracts with clients routinely allow either party to close accounts at any time and for any reason, as was the case with Christian's accounts.

"You can't contract out of human rights," Piper says.

The bank could argue, however, that discrimination based on country of origin is justified for the purpose of discovering criminal behaviour such as money laundering and the financing of terrorist groups.

Banks required to report suspicious transactions

If challenged, Piper says the bank would need to make the case that its actions were necessary to comply with the law, or at least that avoiding discrimination would cause "undue hardship" in its legitimate efforts to monitor customer activities for potentially criminal transactions.

Banks and other institutions in Canada are required to report suspicious transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada or FINTRAC. That centre collects and analyzes the information and can call on police to investigate as necessary.

But Peter Lamey, a spokesman for the federal agency, says FINTRAC does not require banks to shut down accounts.

"If the client or the account poses a great deal of risk to them, they make determinations about how they want to conduct that part of their business. It's up to the institutions to decide who they keep on as clients."

Lamey says in making those decisions, banks may consider factors beyond compliance with anti-money laundering legislation.

"The risks might also be to their own reputation."

(supplied)

Full Scotiabank response to Christian