You can’t judge a book by its cover…can you?

A friend of mine talked to her landlord today. As they chatted, he mentioned the building’s latest tenant: the boyfriend of someone else in the building who has taken to living there, unofficially, but apparently on a permanent basis.

“I want to know who this guy is,” he said. “I want his social insurance number, a copy of his driver’s license, and his name on the lease. I don’t want some dude bringing drugs in here.”

The last comment could normally be passed off as that of a conscientious – perhaps overly conscientious – landlord. But the new boyfriend has dreadlocks. It was obvious to my friend that it was his appearance that prompted the concern about drugs.

No one would question the landlord’s desire to have proper documentation and a signature on a rental contract, especially when this is the standard he applies to all tenants. When someone’s appearance enters into things, questions arise.

Is it acceptable for the landlord to investigate the boyfriend – I’ll call him Ian – more thoroughly than he would normally, perhaps by running a criminal background check? And is it acceptable for Ian’s appearance to influence his decision about Ian’s potential tenancy?

Some types of discrimination are legal. Pardons Canada gives difficulty finding a place to live as one reason to have criminal records removed. The Ontario Human Rights Code does not list a criminal record among the prohibited forms of discrimination (interestingly, a criminal record is not grounds for discrimination with respect to employment).

The Code says that “Every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to the occupancy of accommodation, without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, disability or the receipt of public assistance.”

Landlords are also prohibited from discriminating on the basis of a lack of credit history or a lack of references from previous landlords (because this discriminates against new renters and immigrants), as well as on the basis of many other factors, including some which the landlord may include on the rental questionnaire (it’s not illegal to ask someone the question, only illegal to discriminate on the basis of the answer – parse that logic for me).

In spite of searching fairly extensively, I could not find any information on whether or not discriminating on the basis of hairstyle is legal. The closest it might be to illegal is that a deliberate policy against dreadlocks may be what is called constructive discrimination:

Constructive discrimination refers to policies or practices which may not be intentionally or obviously discriminatory, but which have a discriminatory effect on a group or groups which are protected under the Code. For example, a policy of not allowing internal transfers in a building may not be intentionally discriminatory, but would have a negative, discriminatory effect on some groups protected under the Code, such as families who need to change apartments because of the birth of an additional child.

A policy against dreadlocks could be seen as one directed against blacks (even though Ian is white), because it is a hairstyle more commonly associated with black people than with white people (I have no idea whether or not there really are more black people with dreads than white people, but I could see this case being made).

Other than that, it appears as though the landlord may be legally justified in allowing Ian’s dreads to motivate increased scrutiny of Ian, and even to influence his decision to rent an apartment to him. But is it ethical?

The landlord associates Ian’s dreadlocks with drugs. This stereotype – people with dreads smoke pot – is probably based on the close relationship between dreadlocks and the Rastafari movement. Dreads are one of the religious movement’s most well-known symbols, and smoking pot is certainly its most famous sacrament.

The Rastafari movement’s other well-known symbol: Bob Marley

But there are plenty of clean-cut professionals who smoke pot too, as well as abuse any number of other substances, legal and illegal. Ian might be a great tenant. The next tenant with a crewcut could turn out to be a violent psycho.

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. But what if the book chooses its cover?

[tags]discrimination, human rights, equality, dreadlocks, Rastafari, renting[/tags]