Halifax fitness studio reverses race-based pricing after backlash

A yoga and pilates fitness studio in Halifax has reversed its decision to charge separate rates for its customers based on the colour of their skin.

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A yoga and pilates fitness studio in Halifax has reversed its decision to charge separate rates for its customers based on the colour of their skin, something that could have been a breach of the province’s human rights code.

R Studios, a Halifax-based fitness centre, received a wave of criticism online after it offered “Class passes” at a rate of $30 for those with white skin, while providing $15 class passes for customers who were black, Indigenous or other people of colour.

R Studios has since removed the race-based discount from its website.

The studio and its owner, Connie McInnes, did not respond to True North’s requests for comment.

Section 5 of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act prohibits business owners from discriminating against customers based on the customer’s skin colour or race. The Canadian Human Rights Act also prohibits discrimination on the basis of skin colour or race.

According to the R Studios’ website, the studio has been open since December 2014.

R Studios describes its “open concept space” as “an ethos for breaking down the barriers of traditional practice, to make way for something more fun and accessible.”

“This space was created for the misfits, the non-conformists, the everyday person. A come-as-you-are, be who you want studio,” McInnes described on the studio’s about page. “Movement saved my life in so many different ways at different periods of my life, and I wanted to create a space that would become this same safe haven that I had relied on through so many uprooting moments of my life.”

Despite Canada’s prohibition of discrimination based on immutable characteristics such as race and skin colour, exemptions to the Human Rights Code have been granted by Canadian governments in the past.

In June of last year, Beth Davis, the head of the Burnaby Public Library in British Columbia, was granted an exemption from British Columbia’s Human Rights Code. Davis bragged about wholly disregarding any resumes from white applicants when filling executive roles at the library.

There is no evidence that R Studios received an exemption to the Code.