Banned for being creepy

Photo: Facebook

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal won't reconsider its refusal to hear a Vancouver man's complaint that his dance club banned him for being "creepy," and discriminated against him on the basis of age, sex and race.

Mokua Gichuru asked the tribunal to rethink a 2017 finding that the Vancouver Swing Society "has a right to ban individuals for inappropriate behaviour, regardless of sex, age or any other characteristic."

Gichuru claimed new evidence from a club member's March 2017 Facebook post supported his request for reconsideration because he said it revealed the swing club refuses to consider harassment complaints raised by men and won't listen to "a man's side of the story."

The post, about unrelated sexual assault allegations made two years earlier against an international dance instructor who was black, said the choice to stand with the victim included banning the abuser, a reference Gichuru argued was aimed at him, an older, black man.

But tribunal member Walter Rilkoff disagreed that the Facebook post refers to Gichuru or that it supports an allegation that the dance club does not fairly handle complaints of harassment.

Gichuru initially complained that he was accused of "mansplaining," or explaining something in a condesending way, and was unfriended on Facebook by a club member after posting an opinion about United States politics, but the exchange degenerated to complaints he had harassed a female club member.

After those details surfaced, Gichuru was banned from volunteering or attending swing society events for the rest of that year, leading to his first appeal to the tribunal and its refusal to consider his case further.

"The club wanted Mr. Gichuru to consider his role as an older man in his conduct toward (the victim,)" Rilkoff says.

"Mr. Gichuru believes that this stereotypes him as a 'creep.' However, the material he provides does not support this belief."