According to a decision made by Quebec’s human rights commission, a Native Quebec man who was denied auto insurance because he resided on a reserve was the victim of racial discrimination.
The case was filed in October 2018 by lawyer and former PQ legislator Alexis Wawanoloath after he was turned down for an auto insurance quote due to his Odanak, roughly 120 kilometres northeast of Montreal, postal code.
Last month, the commission issued a judgement concluding that Industrial Alliance, an insurance provider, had engaged in racial discrimination against Wawanoloath, a member of the W8banakiak First Nation.
Read more about the systemic discrimination MUHC patients and staff experience here.
Wawanoloath told reporters today about the protracted four-year battle to obtain a decision from the commission, noting that his initial complaint had been dismissed in 2020 by an investigator who he later learned also worked in the insurance sector.
The commission mandated that Wawanoloath get $20,000 in moral and punitive damages from the Quebec City-based insurance business.
By November, Industrial Alliance must
11 to either make a payment or take the matter to the Quebec human rights tribunal.
Indigenous Quebecer living on a reserve was turned down for insurance due to “racial discrimination”
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