TORONTO

His case went viral around the world: The Nigerian-born landlord ordered to pay $12,000 for violating the religious rights of his Muslim tenants by not removing his shoes or accommodating their prayer times when trying to re-rent their Brampton apartment.

But while John Alabi’s predicament garnered sympathy from many, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) has just refused to reconsider its controversial ruling.

His next step, he says, is appealing to the Divisional Court.

“I’m disappointed but I’m not surprised,” said Alabi, 52. “I had no hope in them.”

He’s just a small landlord who rented out an apartment in his home to help make his mortgage payments. Walid Madkour and Heba Ismail had moved in during December 2014 but after a month, they gave notice and Alabi started showing the unit to potential renters.

Alabi insists he tried to accommodate the Egyptian-born couple’s many demands about booking viewing times around their prayers and the wife’s need for advanced notice so she could change into modest dress. But they repeatedly cried racism, he says: They complained he didn’t take off his shoes when entering the bedroom where they prayed; Alabi said he was wearing his house shoes, not ones he wore outside. They claimed he made loud pounding noises outside their door to harass them. He said he was just cleaning the walk.

Alabi never did interrupt their prayers or show the apartment when the wife wasn’t properly dressed. He always gave legal notice. “He didn’t break the law as a landlord but he’s still being penalized,” said his lawyer Yuce Baykara.

In April, the tribunal sided with his former tenants and basically cast him as an intolerant racist who created a “poisoned housing environment.” He was ordered to pay $6,000 to each and take human rights training. “They have the ability to do anything they want to people,” Alabi said of the HRTO. “They’re playing politics.”

In her decision released last week, adjudicator Jo-Anne Pickel stood by her ruling. She denied she’d been unfair in dismissing Alabi’s request to adjourn the hearing after he’d just lost his son to suicide. He argued that he’d been forced “to defend the action in his fragile state of mind.”

Pickel said Alabi didn’t start calling evidence until the hearing’s second day, which wasn’t held until nine months later, and didn’t repeat his request to adjourn for “any allegedly fragile state of mind.”

The coldness of her remarks was no surprise to Alabi. “If an institution can tell me that the death of my 24-year-old son is not grounds to give me an adjournment, I’m not surprised by what they decide.”

The tribunal vice-chair also defended her disturbing decision to use a Facebook joke Alabi reposted a year after the tenants had left as evidence he was anti-Muslim. “That sunk his case right there because he posted something on Facebook,” argued his lawyer. “I don’t think that’s fair and I think it’s very dangerous.”

Pickel had no sympathy that English isn’t Alabi’s first language. “The issue with his testimony was not his inability to speak English,” she wrote, “It was the fact that his testimony was neither internally consistent nor consistent with his pleadings or the other documentary evidence in the case.”

To Alabi, it seems he’s just been called a liar on top of being branded a racist. “I have no reason to lie.”

Going through a messy divorce and recently unemployed, Alabi has been so despondent that he even considered taking his life. All that has buoyed him over the last few months has been the outpouring of global support after his story was first told here and picked up by outlets from Britain to Australia which decried political correctness gone amok. Many have contributed to funding his legal fees.

“The support — that is my lifeline that I’m holding on to right now. It gives me faith in Canada,” he said. “I will love this country for the rest of my life. The support I got from people has restored my faith.”

Now he’s preparing to fight the human rights tribunal in court. “I’m a survivor,” Alabi vowed. I’ll survive this.”

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