SAINT-JÉRÔME | Two Muslim men are demanding more than $25,000 from a 75-year-old woman who has pulled a garbage bag over her head like a veil to “insult” her, a gesture they describe as “Islamophobic.”
“It was humiliating what she did,” Farouk Dannawi, one of the two signatories to the civil lawsuit recently filed in the Quebec court, confided to the Journal.
To this day, the 34-year-old real estate agent says he was “traumatized” by the actions of Susan Bertrand on September 30, 2021.
That day, the 75-year-old resident of Saint-Jérôme went to a notary to complete a real estate transaction.
According to the lawsuit, she and her two sisters sold an apartment building on Place Deauville in Laval at the time.
Jonathan Tremblay/JdeM
Farouk Dannawi says he is still “traumatized” by this sad event.
Mr Dannawi and his business partner Ahmad El Ahmad were the buyers.
Mrs Bertrand appeared in front of them with a white garbage bag on her head and a protective mask on her face to imitate the veil and she would have made inappropriate comments.
“I put a scarf on for you guys, but I took a garbage bag with me. I have a lawyer, I will sue you. It will stink at home”, we can read in the document if she had told the buyers in front of the notary and her sisters.
The two men felt “very offended and their dignity and religious beliefs violated,” the lawsuit says. They continued to sign anyway.
Dirty and smelly
Once in the apartment, however, they would have understood the meaning of Mrs. Bertrand’s statement.
The place was “very dirty” and a “bad smell” was spread there, it said. The seventy-year-old’s two sisters were so “embarrassed” that they apologized and cleaned the place themselves, we read.
“The defendant’s behavior clearly demonstrates his bad faith and his intention to insult and humiliate the plaintiffs by making fun of their religious beliefs, in this case Islam,” it said.
According to these gentlemen, the lady’s behavior was “clearly Islamophobic and premeditated”.
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She laughs…
Confronted at home, Ms. Bertrand did not deny the facts. She scoffed quite a bit when Le Journal listed them for her.
“I was in ost ** after the others. It occurred to me to pull a bag over my head,” she said simply earlier this week.
The latter defended itself against having acted in this way because the buyers had “disrespected” them by allegedly breaking certain promises.
“You didn’t respect me. I didn’t respect her. Because I put on a bag, he demands $25,000 from me. Who does he think he is?” she asks.
However, Mr. Dannawi specifies that he did not undertake this process for financial reasons, but as a matter of principle.
However, the main person involved denied the odor allegations. She awkwardly justified herself by referring to certain foreign culinary traditions.
He is being asked to pay $15,000 in moral damages, $10,000 in punitive damages for his bad faith, and $300 in court costs.
“I just wanted to fool her. If they send me to court, I will defend myself. I’m not going to pay a lawyer for that,” Ms. Bertrand launched.
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