Montreal-area man says neighbour’s racist harassment persists despite Human Rights Tribunal ruling

Clifford Boucard says racial harassment from his neighbour has continued despite a Human Rights Tribunal ruling and $10,000 in damages.

A Pointe-aux-Trembles man has been awarded $10,000 in damages by Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal after it found his neighbour had been racially harassing him for nearly a decade.

The harassment included repeated use of racial slurs, including the n-word, and false reports to the police.

The ruling was handed down earlier this month, but Clifford Boucard says the taunts from his neighbour have continued.

Boucard says the harassment started soon after he moved into his girlfriend’s house in Pointe-aux-Trembles in 2015: “as soon as she found out that we had a child together.”

“The child is mixed, and she didn’t like the fact that my girlfriend, who is white, was dating a coloured person like me,” Boucard told CTV News.

He says his neighbour Sylvie Gagnon frequently directs racial slurs at him and his now 8-year-old son.

“Hey, you N-this, why don’t you go back to your country,” Boucard gave as an example of the insults he’s used to hearing.

He says she installed security cameras that point in through his windows, invading his family’s privacy, and routinely calls the police.

“At the end of the day, she’s a 60-something-year-old white lady and I’m a young black man. When the cops show up, no matter what I say, they have a hard time believing me,” he said.

Boucard says he’s thought about moving multiple times but doesn’t want to let himself be intimidated.

“If I move … it’s like saying, ‘Okay, everything you’re doing is okay. It’s me who’s not in my place. Let me move so you could feel good.’”

Instead, with the help of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), Boucard filed a human rights complaint.

Earlier this month, the human rights tribunal ruled Gagnon had racially harassed Boucard over a period of nearly 10 years and awarded him $10,000 in moral and punitive damages.

“We hear a lot about racial discrimination or racial profiling, but racial harassment is very, very rare in recent years,” said CRARR’s executive director, Fo Niemi.

But Boucard says even with the ruling, her behaviour hasn’t changed.

“We thought having this would put an end to it. I think I’m wrong because the lady is still not stopping the name calling, still making those gesture. I don’t know what she wants from me,” said Boucard.

In a statement to CTV News, Gagnon’s lawyer wrote that she is in the process of evaluating possible means of appeal and declined to comment further.

Boucard says he wants his son to be free to play in the backyard without fear that the police might be called if he makes too much noise.

“The kid is not dumb. At seven, eight years old, he understands, ‘Okay, this lady is after your dad.’"