Highest Court in Ontario Annuls Land Sale Contract Which Contained Anti-jewish Clause

The Canadian Jewish Congress today lauded a deeision by the Supreme Court of Ontario which declared illegal a land sale contract containing a clause stipulating that the land “was not to be sold to Jews or persons of objectionable nationality.”

The land concerned in the case was located in Toronto and was purchased by the Workers Educational Association, which planned to build a model home to be raffled off to provide funds for the association. Examination of the covenant revealed the restrictive clause and the Association asked the Supreme Court to void it. They were joined in the action by J.M. Bernstein, representing the Canadian Jewish Congress which objected to the racial intolerance that the clause created.

In issuing the judgment of the court, Justice Keiller Mackay declared that the restrictive covenant “is void and of no offect.” He pointed out that if a sale of land could be prohibited to Jews, it could equally be prohibited to Protestants, Catholies or any other denomination. “In my opinion, he said, “nothing could be more calculated to create or deepen divisions between existing religious and ethnic groups in this province, or in this country, than the sanction of a method of land transfer which would permit the segregation and confinement of particular groups to particular business or residential areas.”