MONTREAL — A recreational trampoline centre is defending its policy of no longer accepting Jewish camps as clients because they have had “too many problems” with them in the past.

François Leblanc, who identified himself as the son of the owner of Club de Trampoline Acrosport Barani in Laval, told the CJN on May 16 that, as a private enterprise, the club can choose with whom it does business.

He said some Jewish camps have not paid their bills and the children do not respect the safety regulations. He also alluded to certain “accommodations” sought by the camps on religious grounds.

The controversy arose the day before when Rabbi Levi Raskin, director of the day camp Ohr Menachem, run by Beth Chabad in Côte St. Luc, released on the Internet an excerpt of a phone call he had with a woman at Acrosport.

He tries to make a reservation for a single visit by the campers for this summer, after a staff member earlier that day had tried unsuccessfully to do so.

The woman repeats that Acrosport is not making reservations. When Rabbi Raskin asks why not, she asks the name of the camp and he gives it. She replies, “Because it is a Jewish camp and we have had problems before.”

Rabbi Raskin told The CJN that he has been bringing campers to Acrosport for some years without any incident, and denied the camp, which serves about 80 kids, owes any money. “We pay full price,” he said.

However, he said he has had the sense that “they don’t like us.”

Leblanc would not confirm if there was any issue specifically with Ohr Menachem, but rather spoke in general terms about numerous Jewish camps.

Leblanc said the woman who took Rabbi Raskin’s call might have expressed herself better, but no apology is in order. He said it is “unfortunate” that she is being “misunderstood” because of her lack of ease in English.

He noted that the 22-second excerpt posted by Rabbi Raskin – which has gone viral – is not the complete conversation and omits some of the problems cited.

Leblanc is annoyed that Acrosport has since been “harassed by hundreds of calls” from the Jewish community.

At time of writing, Jewish advocacy groups were still trying to make direct contact with the management of Acrosport, but they said that from what they knew so far, they judge it to be a case of blatant anti-Semitism and against the law.

Steven Slimovitch, a legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, said it’s a violation of the Quebec Human Rights Charter to refuse to do business with anyone on the basis of religion.

If there no satisfactory resolution is forthcoming, B’nai Brith would consider bring the matter before the Quebec Human Rights Commission, he said.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said May 16 that it attempted to phone Acrosport, but could not find someone to speak to about the issue, then faxed a letter asking for the centre to provide an explanation of what happened.

Spokesperson Eta Yudin said CIJA wants to give Acrosport an opportunity to give its side.

“A private enterprise can choose not to do business with a specific individual or organization, but it cannot exclude a whole community on the basis of experience with certain members of that community,” she said.

On May 18, Acrosport posted on its Facebook page: “We do not reject the Jewish community to come to our place, we refuse camps that are not able to respect our regulations.”

The company reiterated that it’s justified in refusing to do business with those groups that it has had a bad experience due to “unpaid bills or paid several months late, failure to comply with the regulations (children and chaperones) and impossible requests for us to fill (e.g. prayer room) we can no longer accept or accommodate certain groups in our facilities. It is a question of safety first and foremost.”

Acrosport says it has nothing to do with religion, colour, language or gender.

The post also states that Acrosport has been in business for more than 30 years and has “the right to choose the customer with whom we want to work (respectful, polite, safe and good payers!)”

The post complains of hundreds of harassing phone calls and “insults because we do not speak English.”