VANCOUVER — A young Calgary man says a First Nations basketball organization's decision to bar him from a tournament in northern British Columbia is discriminatory.

Josiah Wilson, 22, said he is a status Indian who was adopted from Haiti as a baby and is a member of the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, B.C.

Wilson said he played for a junior aboriginal team for two years and was about to enter his third All Native Basketball Tournament with an intermediate men's team this week but was told he could no longer play.

"The Heiltsuk people are really upset about it,'' Wilson said from Calgary. "They're all really mad and upset that I'm not allowed to play with them this year. Everybody's saying, 'Why are they coming at me now after seeing me play for two years and now saying I can't play?'''