It was a normal Saturday morning and Toronto resident Frantz St. Fleur was depositing a check at in a perfectly normal manner at Scotiabank. He was a loyal customer and had banked there for nearly ten years. The check in question was for $9000 and was a refund of a deposit he had made for a failed condo purchase.
On this normal Saturday morning, on presenting the check, St. Fleur was taken to the office of a bank employee. Suspecting nothing, St. Fleur complied and was presented with several investment opportunities that he declined. The bank employee soon left, only to be replaced by several law enforcement officers.
The 38-year-old Toronto man remembers his experience as “the worst thing that has ever happened to me” and “horrible”.
“I’ve never been arrested [in] my life. It was a Saturday morning; the bank was full and the mall also… Everybody was looking at me, and nothing was done quietly. Everybody saw everything that happened.”
St. Fleur was interrogated for a period of time, before being released on the spot after the check was found to be valid. Due to the severity of the psychological trauma he claimed to have endured, St. Fleur has named not only the bank and the Toronto Police as defendants in a lawsuit for $225,000 in damages. He has chosen to include Re/Max Community Realty Inc. as a defendant, the issuer of the troublesome check.
Re/Max Community Realty had maintained from the start that the check they had issued to St. Fleur was valid. Claiming to have only been made aware of the incident the day he was arrested, they had responded quickly and worked closely with him. In a company statement, the firm stated, “We have always taken the position that the check was valid.”
This being the case, uncertainties remain regarding the reasoning behind the arrest. The only logical conclusion would be that St. Fleur was a black man and his possession of a large amount of money had led the bank employee to make the call based on racial prejudice.
In a statement, Scotiabank has since apologised. “Customers are our No. 1 priority and are treated with the utmost respect. The treatment of Mr. St. Fleur was unacceptable and we have apologized and made an initial offer to reverse certain fees on his account and then offered an additional goodwill gesture in the spring. We have also worked with our employees to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The bank had apparently apologised to St. Fleur in a letter that also offered $100 and two years worth of refunds for banking fees. Unsurprisingly, St. Fleur did not accept the princely ransom. According to him, it is not about the money but the simple principle that caused the incident to occur to begin with.
“…There’s no other reason it happened. Because I’m black. I’m black and in the bank with a $9,000 check. I want people to know. Everyone is equal in Canada … everyone is equal. With what happened, I realized there is something that needs to be fixed. I want everybody else to know.”
Where’s the rest of the article? It feels like this is only half an article. It starts off, and never finished. Why was he arrested? What happened next? Pretty shitty writing you have going on here…
I agree. Not much of an article for something as important as this.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/12/10/banking_while_black_toronto_man_accuses_scotiabank_of_racial_profiling.html?app=noRedirect
you know the toronto star makes everyone look stupid but some people are too stupid to realize it because they like being apart of the global teenage period gossip
Lame. What editor would allow this for publication. Guess I’m done with this rag.
here’s a real article..
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/12/10/banking_while_black_toronto_man_accuses_scotiabank_of_racial_profiling.html
I agree, This article doesn’t give us the reasoning behind the police involvement from the police’s perspective. It just lets us make the decision that a canadian man was tackled n a bank. It tells us nothing. I smell a fox.
My bad, the article was incomplete. I had saved it as a draft and somehow it ended up published. I’ve submitted the complete version, hopefully that one will be used.
Sorry, article is updated now.
only part of this is true, why do people change the true story of what happen, bank did not ask or show any investment opportunities. lawsuit is not 225,000,, it for 250,000..
http://www.ctvnews.ca/search-results/search-ctv-news-7.137?q=+Frantz+St.+Fleur+
I’d be suing the bank 100% for the humiliation, among other things. Stupidest thing I’ve heard happening at a bank to a loyal customer. I hope the chick was fired and charged for soliciting whatever investments to him, I’m sure it was something she was involved with. Scotia bank SUCKS! Always has.
“Scotia bank SUCKS!”
+1
I have bank accounts in good standing with BMO and ING but wanted to open a Scotia account to do some saving and trading on Cavirtex (a licensed money services company) and I told all this as I opened the account and was informed there would be no issues outside regular limits etc. I made my first deposit into the account from my verified Cavirtex account and they froze the funds and wouldn’t release them to me for 8 MONTHS! BUT they DID debit service fees from the account the whole time even though it was frozen and I couldn’t use it for anything thus not receiving the services they were charging me for! Finally after 8 months of many email Complaints I threaten legal action and reporting to ombudsman and they sent me my funds (still minus fees) via bank draft and closed the account. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE BANK WHO HATES RHEIR CUSTOMERS
Good to know the U.S. isn’t the only place with crooked banks.
How stupid is that? Just because you don’t want to invest? I’m sure it was some scam she had going and she calls the police? I hope she was fired and charged. He needs to sue the bank AND her personally for the humiliation, amongst other things. Find another bank too! Scotia Bank sucks!
The investment opportunities were likely a stall tactic waiting for the cops to get there. I know that if you deposit over $10,000 in cash, there’s an automatic investigation, but this is bs. pure racist garbage. I hope he sues the **** out of them.
There was a story not too long ago about people being manipulated into ripoff investments. And predatory investment practicez. Think it was some fake ass lady working for royal or td
My guess would be that she used the “Investments” meeting\interview as a way to delay him. They most likely got suspicious about the fact he wanted to deposit 9,000
The bank did that so the cops can arrive before he leaves. They thought it was a game check
In that bank the afroamericans can’t have so much cash legally. ..
Um, he’s canadian so he couldn’t be afroamerican.
Canada is part of the North America Continent. So yeah canadian black people are still Afro American
So quit being a smartass and know your geography dick!
There is not enough information in the article.
Who – Frantz St. Fleur
What – An Arrest
When – on a Saturday
Where – Canada
Why – The guy did not get arrested for making a deposit and refusing an investment opportunity. You did not provide any information on what actually happened to get him arrested and what happened afterwards. This is journalism 101.
Stop posting golden titles and providing shit in your posts. You are better than this.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1719798/toronto-man-alleges-he-was-a-victim-of-racial-profiling-launches-lawsuit/
^ this. 100%. I’m sick to my nuts of the shit *in your face* titles followed by crappy hollow stories that have been posted as of late, I feel like I’m reading the bloody Sun newspaper…
Hello,
we are not a multi million $ founded newspaper. We are independent & investigative and working everyday to enhance the quality of AnonHQ. Over the last month since our start we continuously improved and will always keep improving. We will also focus more on delivering the news on time.
Maybe one of your improvements could be a canadian dictionary. Since he was in a bank in Toronto, he was depositing a CHEQUE not a check. Doesn’t anyone proofread these before they get posted?
maybe you could not be a whore on their period you cunt dumbster and stop judging people because your family never loved you and probably thought you where just a mistake but never told you because there just miserable sons of bitchs and where too stupid to not use a twix wrapper instead of a condom and what it really comes down too is that you where probably just one big mistake
…or you where adopted and your real parents knew what the right thing to do
it say Toronto man you dumb fuck mabe you should learn how to read
BANKS! Remind me why Bonnie and Clyde were heroes. They robbed banks.
The Canadian banks are lot like it’s television providers; there are few of them, and those that exist are massive corporations that will suck you of all your money if they can. Sadly there isn’t anywhere else to have your money secured. I feel bad for this guy.
What charge was he arrested on? Why were the police even called? What happened after the arrest?
This is why I don’t use scotiabank… I mean aside from it’s elitist overdraft hooks, it’s creepily stark environment. I’ve just never trusted their ethics. I BARELY trust my own bank. But I use them cause I trust “Online Savings accounts” even less. and PC Savings Accounts give me a weird vibe.
That is so shitty!!! you go to a bank and deposit money and then when your not interested in investments made by the bank employee you get arrested!!! This is crazy I think that women should be arrested and humiliated just like this man was!!!
the girl calling him in to talk about “investments” was just a stall tactic to keep him there till the cops arrived
And…
What happened next?
This is another stunning example of how we are being told how we can and cannot use our own funds. Our labr makes the country and floods its vaults with value to be distributed by someone else’s whims. It is our hard work that builds cities and dreams. and we deserve to keep what is our due. To do with as we please so long as it harms no other. It is a shame to see such a blatant act of personal attack.
There’s no source link… Not on google either
That’s horrible.
I know that the banks are concerned or have questions when this amount is coming into the bank. I brought the exact same amount into my bank and they questioned me like I was a drug dealer but eventually deposited my money. It was very intimidating.
here is the full article from theroot.com
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/toronto_man_arrested_while_depositing_money_into_his_own_bank_account.html
OK wtf? Someone I know recently had $25,000 deposited into their account because they worked without a contract for two years and the union finally forced the company said person works for to pay up. No one said shit or called the police.
Nice 1 tito- it was important to hear the bank s response, howeva shitty
Nice 1 tito- wanted to hear the bank s side even tho they didn’t really give an explanation. Unless it’s unofficial bank policy to use racial profiling then the teller was obviously a racist.
More proof the government is digging in the pockets of the citizens to rob them of what they have….I say fight it out in court and get your money back mate.
These criminals know who to do it to because if it was the wrong person he would’ve shot up the place. And I would applaude him too
I would be moving my money out of that bank ASAP!
I’m sorry, but I found it incredibly irritating that the author of this article wrote “check” instead of “cheque.” For a Canadian publication, they should have used the proper Canadian word.
I think that the cops have it in for blacks. If your black just being on the street can get you searched. Police just have it in for blacks
its just stupid he had $9000 that he worked hard for and thay judged him for WHAT the coulor of his skin hope he sues the shit out of them
Muppets. Blame the cops when they are acting on reasonable suspicion. The bank calls them because an employee believes it’s fraud without doing due diligence and checking whether the cheque is legitimate. If it was a white person they suspected, the cops would arrest them too. It’s solely based on the misguided, potentially racist view of an incompetent bank employee that you people are so up in arms.
I really feel for this brother, after all that the Scotia bank offer him $100
I don’t blame him for suing Scotia Bank. What wrong with depositing $9000
They have all is information on record, they have no reason to arrest the brother
Take your money out of that bank….
In Canada … He’ll probably get near the $225k of the lawsuit amount. Fortunately he’s not in the USA. In the USA, — the “authorities” would reframe the lawsuit against the bank as a “special form of terrorism” and then send him to a secret base in Cuba where he would be subjected to several YEARS of 144 hour intervals of the same song played over and over again while being water-boarded (yet somehow – not ‘tortured’ in it all). What’s really nuts is that lots of people reading this think that I’m making it up!
I read other papers about this and I think he should sue them, the cheque was coming from a legit organization and re/max said they only received a call from the police to validate the cheque, the bank didn’t call. I deposited a large sum of money before with Scotia and they called the company to validate my cheque, once it was validated, they deposited my fund but I’m white. There was racial profiling and not only is this humiliating, he probably wasn’t able to attend work and was made to look like guilty in front of many people, who probably went home and said another black guy committed a crime, justice is needed.