One bias complaint against gym upheld

Rights tribunal says club worked to accommodate ‘difficult’ member

An Ottawa athletic club has been ordered to relocate a grab bar and pay a disabled member $3,000 after failing to accommodate her needs in its Zumba classes.

But the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario dismissed Ruhaina Remtulla’s other allegations of discrimination against The Athletic Club at the Train Yards, ruling that the club generally responded appropriately to “a difficult person to deal with.”

Remtulla was diagnosed with relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis in 2003. She joined The Athletic Club in 2012, attracted by its Zumba classes, which incorporate Latin and international music and dance movements.

The 65,000-square-foot club — one of 10 in Ontario owned by the same company — has about 12,000 members.

Discussions about accommodating Remtulla’s special needs were initially promising, with a “constructive dialogue” between both parties, says the tribunal in its June 25 decision.

But over time, that conversation “went off the rails,” the tribunal says, prompting Remtulla to complain that the club discriminated against her by failing to act on three accommodation requests. She also alleged that it retaliated by threatening to cancel her membership.

One of Remtulla’s demands was that the club install grab bars on the back wall of the club’s two dance studios to help with her balance during Zumba classes.

The club complied, but put one of the grab bars in the wrong place. When Remtulla objected, the club “deliberately refused to discuss moving it,” says the tribunal. That amounted to discrimination with respect to services because of dis- ability, it found.

But the tribunal dismissed Remtulla’s other allegations. One involved the club’s practice of dimming the lights during some Zumba classes and turning on a disco ball to recreate a nightclub atmosphere.

Because of her disability, Remtulla felt unsafe during the “lightsoff” Zumba classes, and asked the athletic club to ensure the lights were on when she attended.

But Remtulla twice refused the club’s request to supply a schedule of the classes she attended. When she later did, says the tribunal, her answer was designed to get the club to stop offering lights-off classes at most of its Zumba classes in its coed studio.

The tribunal found that Remtulla “did not engage in a discussion of her accommodation request in good faith,” and dismissed the allegation. It also dismissed an allegation that the club failed to keep accessible areas at the back of the two studios clear of obstructions, saying it made reasonable efforts to comply with Remtulla’s concerns.

And the tribunal rejected Remtulla’s reprisal allegation, noting that she ignored warnings not to tamper with equipment in the studio, contrary to the terms of her membership agreement.

Remtulla asked for 15 separate remedies from the tribunal, in- cluding payment of $35,000 as compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect.

But the tribunal rejected all but four of those remedies and ordered the club to pay Remtulla just $3,000 in compensation because of its “humiliating” refusal to relocate the grab bar.

Though Remtulla was “at times disrespectful” to the club’s staff and made “unreasonable demands,” her right to accommodation “is not conditional on her being polite,” the tribunal noted.

Approached for comment through her former lawyer, Remtulla said she wasn’t comfortable being interviewed about the case.

Brian MacDonald, lawyer for The Athletic Club, said his client was generally satisfied with the tribunal’s decision. “The vast majority of it, we thought, was very complimentary of how The Athletic Club conducted itself.”

MacDonald said the club is already taking steps to comply with the tribunal order and plans to put the same accommodations provided to Remtulla in place at its new club in Kanata, scheduled to open July 21.

Despite the dispute, Remtulla remains a member of the club, MacDonald said, and still works out there regularly.