Canadian Condo Dish Discrimination Case Dismissed
A Halifax man who asserted that his condo board’s ordering him to take down his satellite dish amounted to discrimination has had his case dismissed by the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, the CBC reports.
A report from the hearing in August gives us the background information on Ahmed Assal’s case:
Assal, a condo owner in Clayton Park, is a Muslim originally from Egypt. Through his satellite dish, he gets 18 channels of religious and cultural programming in Arabic.
Without it, he says his children could not get the programs essential to their education.
"I have a family, I have children, and the serious matter is that it is for culture, religion, language," he told reporters after the hearing.
Assal acknowledges he knew about the condominium board’s bylaw that prohibits satellite dishes before he bought the condo.
The dismissal came down last week:
Board chairman Royden Trainor said he wasn’t satisfied that Assal met the necessary burden of proof to show he was discriminated against.
Trainor concluded that the absence of satellite service would not have the same impact on the family’s faith and cultural identity as being denied traditional ethnic food, for example.
"The [Assal] family’s ongoing devotion to the practices and tenets of their faith and cultural identity will continue unimpeded, uninterrupted and undiminished with or without access to a particular satellite dish and service," he wrote in his April 3 decision.
We’re not familiar enough with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission to say definitively what sort of presidence this would set for other condo owners in Canada. Other cases have gone the other way when condo boards and dish owners have locked horns; this case, for example, is a good reminder of the need for specific language when HOAs try to control exterior modifications to condos. We will suggest, however, Canada’s most famous condo lawyer as counsel if you find yourself in a legal snafu, trapped between your desire for satellite TV and a pesky HOA constraint.
Here in the United States, the FCC has declared that Federal law supercedes any local or HOA zoning constraint. But you can avoid many of these legal hassles simply by following our DIY Friday guide to disguising your dish (especially this one for condos). As the photo above illustrates (yes, that’s a satellite dish acting all incognito), all you need is a patio and some patio furniture, and the next thing you know you’re surreptiously watching your favorite satellite shows and keeping the neighbors happy.
