An independent human rights board of inquiry has found that a Nova Scotia woman was discriminated against based on her disability when she was evicted from a Hants County campground.

During the 2012 summer season, Valerie Clattenburg was evicted from Boutilier’s Glen Campground in Mount Uniacke, Hants Co.

, due to disputes over campground policies. After her eviction, Ms. Clattenburg’s daughter Melissa Clattenburg-Pace was also evicted. Both women live in Dartmouth.

Ms. Clattenburg-Pace has a physical disability, the result of two car collisions. She suffers pain, has headaches, walks with a cane, has occasional temporary loss of consciousness and tires easily.

During the inquiry, board chair Walter Thompson heard from all parties including Perry Boutilier and Lynn Collins, the proprietors of the campground.

In their complaint filed with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, both Ms. Clattenburg-Pace and Ms. Clattenburg claimed they had been discriminated against when they were evicted. While Mr. Thompson determined there was no discrimination present in Ms. Clattenburg’s eviction, he did find that Ms. Clattenburg-Pace was discriminated against when she was preemptively evicted based on the assumption that she would be unable to care for herself without the presence of her family nearby.

“The campground, albeit in good faith, unwittingly, without the intention to discriminate, in the end made a rash and somewhat arbitrary judgment about her ability to look after herself,” wrote Mr. Thompson in his decision.

“While we all need support from time to time in our lives, it is not for our landlords to say that we cannot stay because they, the landlords, do not think the supports are adequate,” said Mr. Thompson. “It is for the individuals themselves to determine what they may need or not need and to the point where their disability is somehow actively interfering with the proper operation of a premises or the peace of other occupants, a landlord has little nothing to say about it.”

Mr. Thompson ordered the proprietors of Boutilier’s Glen to pay Ms. Clattenburg-Pace $3,000. One thousand dollars for the discrimination, $1,000 for the loss of use of her trailer for the balance of the 2012 season and the use of the lot where it sat, and $1,000 to compensate her for the cost and trouble of having to take down and move her trailer.

For more information and to read the full decision, go to humanrights.gov.ns.ca .

FOR BROADCAST

     An independent human rights board of inquiry has found

that a Nova Scotia woman was discriminated against based on

her disability when she was evicted from a Hants County

campground.

     Board chair Walter Thomson has ordered the proprietors of

Boutilier’s Glen Campground in Mount Uniacke to pay

Melissa Clattenburg-Pace of Dartmouth $3,000 in damages.

     During the 2012 summer season, Ms. Clattenburg-Pace’s

mother Valerie Clattenburg was evicted from the campground due

to disputes over campground policies. Following her eviction,

Ms. Clattenburg-Pace was also evicted.

     Ms. Clattenburg-Pace has a physical disability, the

result of two car collisions.

     Mr. Thompson stated in his decision that Ms. Clattenburg-

Pace was discriminated against when she was evicted based on

the assumption that she would be unable to care for herself

without her family nearby.
     
     For more information and to read the decision in go to

the Human Rights Commission website.

Source: Release