A Palestinian walks in Gaza City on Nov. 27 on the fourth day of the temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.Mohammed Hajjar/The Associated Press
Toronto-area real estate agents accused of making hateful statements about the Hamas-Israel war may have faced professional and social consequences, but some are worried that calls for them to lose their licence to trade in real estate go too far.
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the escalating Israeli attacks on Gaza have fuelled debate online that, in some cases, has prompted corporations and public institutions across Canada to take action against an array of professionals from politicians and educators to doctors and pilots.
Online petitions and social media campaigns against several realtors have resulted in complaints being made to the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO), the quasi-government body that is responsible for regulating the 96,000 registered real estate professionals in the province.
In late October, Re/Max Realtron cut ties with realtor Vadim Vilensky after he posted pictures of destroyed buildings in Gaza with the caption “Coming soon to the market.” Mr. Vilensky later apologized and has since set up his own real estate company. Mr. Vilensky declined to comment for this article.
Many of the 19,000 signatories on a Change.org petition aimed at Mr. Vilensky demanded that RECO should not just investigate him, but revoke his licence.
Similar demands have been made about other realtors in the province.
Another Re/Max Realtron agent, Leon Klaiman, said he has been inundated with threats since screenshots purporting to be private messages from him talking about the war in the Middle East surfaced on social media. In the screenshot, Mr. Klaiman refers to “cockroaches with their underground tunnels,” though he has said the image was manipulated.
Mr. Klaiman said he has received notice from RECO and the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) that they are investigating complaints, but said his current focus is on dealing with threats aimed at him personally.
“[With]the amount of threats I’ve been receiving over the course of the last two weeks,” he said in an interview, “TRREB and RECO are not the concern.”
Realtron’s chief operating officer and general manager Cam Forbes says the company has not cut ties with Mr. Klaiman and makes a distinction with the Vilensky situation because he believes Mr. Klaiman’s words were taken out of context. “They are two different situations, different ends of the scale for sure in terms of conduct,” he said.
Moreover, Mr. Forbes argues that RECO’s role in investigating hateful speech is a narrow one focused on whether it affects the trading of real estate.
“If somebody has a conversation with somebody else and they happen to be registrants and one person says something that … could be perceived as being hateful or bigoted or not tolerant, I don’t think RECO does have a role,” Mr. Forbes.
RECO declined to comment on specific investigations but did issue a statement: “At RECO, complaints are taken seriously, and we have a process in place to investigate them. RECO administers the law considering the public interest, and favours regulation that is proportionate and sufficient to change behaviour.”
The legislation that gives RECO its powers, the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, is silent on the topic of hate speech, though it warns more broadly that realtors cannot “in the course of trading in real estate, engage in any act or omission that … would reasonably be regarded as disgraceful, dishonourable, unprofessional or unbecoming.”
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Barry Lebow is a 50-year veteran of Ontario real estate who resigned from his Re/Max Ultimate brokerage on Nov. 6 after Facebook comments he made about Gaza were circulated online.
“When this is over and Israel is victorious, my wish – Gaza should never be rebuilt,” Mr. Lebow wrote in October, amid a call for the residents of the Palestinian enclave to be dispersed to other countries.
In another post he used vulgar language to describe his impressions of Gaza when he had visited it as a member of the Israeli Defence Force in 1967, reflecting that since then it had gotten “built up and modern … My wish now is for it to return to [its previous] status.” He also wrote, “It has been a ‘wildlife sanctuary’ since 1948.”
In an interview with The Globe Mr. Lebow confirmed a complaint had been made to RECO about his comments and said he has also received death threats from strangers as well as facing personal condemnations from some considered friends and colleagues. “I have been disgraced and I admit to being scared,” he said.
Mr. Lebow insisted he wasn’t being “malicious” with this commentary, and insisted his words were not hateful. “Am I guilty of not articulating myself properly?” he said, “Do I regret posting? Now I do, I really do.”
In a statement announcing Mr. Lebow’s resignation, his former broker of record Tim Syrianos described the social media posts as “a personal opinion that does not reflect the ethics, values, nor the standards of Re/Max and Re/Max Ultimate collectively.”
Mr. Lebow said he tried several brokerages before he found one willing to take him on. Mr. Lebow’s new boss, Michael Weiss, broker of record for Weiss Realty Ltd., doesn’t agree with those who have called for RECO to revoke the licence of Mr. Lebow and others accused of hateful speech.
“To take away someone’s licence that generally is reserved for people who commit serious crimes like fraud,” he said. “To take away someone’s livelihood because they posted a comment? Unless it’s a comment glorifying genocide and even then, is that a RECO issue? Unless there’s a specific call for the murder of people then RECO should say ‘Not our jurisdiction,’ and refer it to a criminal court.”
While the industry waits to see what RECO will decide to do in these cases, some long-time realtors would like to see a clear example set.
“None of our diverse communities deserve to be subjected to some of the hate that we’ve seen out there,” said Desmond Brown, who leads a sales team at Re/Max Hallmark and hosts the real estate podcast Sold in the 6ix. “It would be nice if RECO had bylaws in effect to deal with hate speech. If one of our members is found guilty of this, regardless of whether they are in the course of dealing real estate or not, they should be reprimanded harshly.”