A Vancouver coffee bar owner must pay four people $1,000 each after a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found she discriminated against them on the basis of race in violation of B.C.’s Human Rights Code.

Moncef Ben Maaouia, Walid Haouas, Bechir Gharbi and Aissa Dairy are friends and long‐time customers of Toscani Coffee Bar on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive owned by Cyrilla Conforti, said tribunal member Devyn Cousineau’s Feb. 23 decision.

Haouas said on July 8, 2017, Conforti told him she did not want “you Arabs” to come to Toscani anymore and to “tell your friends.” 

Ben Maaouia testified that when he went to Toscani later that day, Conforti told him that she would not serve him or his friends anymore, and asked him to talk to Haouas about why. 

As a result of these events, the four have not returned to Toscani, Cousineau said.

Gharbi and Dairy had been going to Toscani almost daily for 20 years while Ben Maaouia had attended for 15 years. Haouas had been going…



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