A Canadian woman has claimed she was denied an apartment in Canada for not being of Gujarati Indian descent. Caroline Ironwill, a tarot consultant, took to the social media platform Threads to report her experience of discrimination.
Ironwill, whose website states she lives in downtown Toronto, added that she had the denial in writing and was tempted to pursue legal action against the landlords.
She did not specify the city in her post. According to the 2021 Canadian census, there are over 2 lakh Gujaratis living in Canada, with the majority of them based in Toronto and its suburbs. Gujarati is also the third most-spoken Indian language in Canada after Punjabi and Hindi.
Denied for not being Indian
“I was just declined an apartment because I'm not Gujarat Indian. It's a separate apartment unit, not shared. I have that on writing,” Caroline Ironwill wrote on Threads.
The Canadian woman blamed the Indian diaspora for Canada’s housing crisis. She said that Indians choose to migrate to Canada, buy up houses and then refuse to rent them to native Canadians.
“They chose to come to Canada, buy up available homes, then deny housing to Canadian citizens? This is why we have a housing crisis. I'm quite tempted to sue,” Ironwill said.
{{/usCountry}}“They chose to come to Canada, buy up available homes, then deny housing to Canadian citizens? This is why we have a housing crisis. I'm quite tempted to sue,” Ironwill said.
{{/usCountry}}Doubts about story
Not everyone who read Ironwill’s story bought her version of events. Some people raised doubts about the authenticity of her story and urged her to file a legal complaint.
“Never happened. This is just a veiled attempt at anti immigration rhetoric. Do better, this is sad and pathetic,” wrote one user. “If it happened, prove it and sue,” another said.
Many, however, agreed with Ironwill. “I hear this happen all too often. When I was searching for an apartment for myself I found 100s of landlords that said they refuse to rent to white people or non Indian people,” a user claimed.
“People saying this never happened either aren't Canadian or haven't tried to rent an apartment in any major Canadian city in the last 8 years,” another added.