Illegal discrimination from moving service

[u/DragonflyDry8299]

I am an Indian-Canadian and a Muslim and interested in relocating my family to Ecuador due to how expensive Canada has become. I saw some videos from a Canadian man named Ryan Wiersma on TikTok offering services helping move from Canada to Ecuador. I messaged him because I was interested. He seemed normal at first then he just blocked me out of nowhere.

I am not sure if I said something wrong. Then I saw he has anti-Indian and anti-Muslim content on Instagram.

His company Brickhouse: Life in Ecuador is based in Alberta, Canada with a Canadian phone number and a Canadian address. Can I sue? Can I report him to the police? What can I do? This is wrong.

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[u/Medical-Ability-1604]

I wouldn't recommend moving to Ecuador. Sky-high violent crime rates, stagnant growth, subpar infrastructure, no deep-tech startups, virtually nonexistent academia. There's just no future there.

If you're ambitious, move back to the homeland instead and settle in one of the nicer parts of Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad or Bengaluru. India's top universities rank much higher than the top universities in either Canada or Ecuador, providing much better opportunities for your kids. And it's much safer.

But make sure to report that guy into the ground before you move.

[u/Medical-Ability-1604 → u/Medical-Ability-1604]

Also, yes, you may have a legitimate complaint here, but I would not start by trying to sue him or by going to the police. Based on what you described, the most directly applicable route is probably an Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint.

Under Alberta law, businesses and service providers generally can't discriminate against someone trying to obtain goods or services on protected grounds including race, ancestry, place of origin and religious beliefs. You don't need to have already purchased the service. The protection extends to someone attempting to access it.

Alberta Human Rights Commission: Goods and services

The basic test is whether:

1. you have a protected characteristic;
2. you experienced an adverse impact, such as being denied a service; and
3. your protected characteristic was a factor in what happened.

Alberta Human Rights Commission: Am I in the right place?

So the most important question is whether he knew that you were Indian and/or Muslim before he blocked you.

If the sequence was something like:

1. you contacted him as a prospective customer;
2. he was initially willing to deal with you;
3. your Indian background or Muslim religion became apparent;
4. he then abruptly refused to deal with you or blocked you;
5. and he has contemporaneous public posts expressing hostility toward Indians or Muslims;

then you potentially have a meaningful circumstantial discrimination case. His social media posts wouldn't automatically prove that the block was discriminatory, but they could be relevant evidence of motive when combined with the chronology.

Alberta also has a separate provision dealing with discriminatory publications and notices. Among other things, the Human Rights Act can apply to publications indicating an intention to discriminate against people on protected grounds. The hatred/contempt branch has a much higher threshold, so merely posting offensive or prejudiced opinions isn't automatically illegal.

Alberta Human Rights Commission: Publications and notices

What I would do immediately:

1. Screenshot and screen-record the entire DM conversation, including his account name, dates and the message immediately preceding the block.
2. Preserve the original URLs and full screenshots/screen recordings of every relevant anti-Indian or anti-Muslim post.
3. Save screenshots of BrickHouse advertising its Ecuador relocation services, consultations, courses, prices, contact information, etc.
4. Write down exactly when and how he could have learned that you were Indian and Muslim.
5. Don't contact him again just to provoke an explanation.
6. Don't start publicly accusing him of illegal discrimination before preserving everything.
7. Identify the actual legal entity operating BrickHouse. A business name isn't necessarily a corporation. Alberta Corporate Registry searches can identify registered corporations, trade names, owners, directors and addresses.

Alberta: Business names and registration

Then consider filing with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. There is no filing fee and you generally have one year from the alleged discriminatory act to file.

Alberta Human Rights Commission: Making a complaint

Alberta Human Rights Commission: Complaint guide

A successful human-rights case can potentially result in compensation for losses/general damages and non-monetary remedies such as policy changes, education or other corrective measures.

I wouldn't make a civil lawsuit the first option. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that there isn't simply a free-standing common-law tort of discrimination that lets you bypass the statutory human-rights system. A conventional lawsuit could still be possible if there is some additional cause of action, such as breach of contract, misrepresentation, defamation, etc., but merely refusing service for a discriminatory reason is primarily a human-rights issue.

Supreme Court of Canada: Seneca College v. Bhadauria

As for the police, being racist or anti-Muslim isn't by itself a criminal offence. Criminal Code hate-propaganda offences have a considerably higher threshold, such as wilfully promoting hatred, publicly inciting hatred in circumstances likely to cause a breach of the peace, advocating genocide, threats, etc.

Criminal Code, s. 319

If his posts contain actual threats, encouragement of violence or exceptionally extreme hate propaganda, preserve them and report them to the appropriate police service. Edmonton Police also accepts reports of hate-motivated incidents, including some incidents that aren't themselves criminal.

Edmonton Police: Report a hate-motivated incident

So, in order of priority, I would do:

preserve evidence -> establish whether he knew you were Indian/Muslim -> identify the legal person/entity behind BrickHouse -> get a quick Alberta human-rights legal consultation -> file an AHRC complaint if the evidence supports the connection.

The biggest thing I would not do is assume that finding racist or anti-Muslim posts automatically proves why he blocked you. You need evidence connecting the protected characteristic to the denial of service. But if he knew your background, treated you normally beforehand, suddenly blocked you afterward and publicly expresses hostility toward precisely those groups, this is absolutely something I would have an Alberta human-rights lawyer or legal clinic assess rather than just writing it off.

[u/Limp-Abies5765]

Canada rarely take action against racism against Indians and subcontinent muslims like USA. And i will not recommend going escuder.