Food preferences are often associated with religious and caste identity in India and have often been used as a tactic to identify and segregate people. And, Indian or Indian-origin landlords are now using these subversive tactics to screen tenants when renting out to new international students in the GTA.

A Reddit post in the r/SlumlordsCanada subreddit has highlighted the living conditions of new immigrants, especially students, in Toronto. The post shows an advertisement for a shared basement with two beds for rent in Scarborough.

The listing specifies the requirement for "a vegetarian male."

The apartment does not have a kitchen, and the ad prompts the reader to use food services for an additional charge. The rent is $450 per month. There is no lease or agreement.

As a first-generation immigrant who moved to Toronto last fall, I am no stranger to ads like these. There are many international students who have had to face food-based discrimination.

That’s not a room…
byu/mybluntside inSlumlordsCanada

Harleen Singh had just arrived in Toronto in 2018 after completing his undergraduate program in Windsor. On a shoestring student budget, Singh, then 22, was looking for affordable housing.

"Initially, I stayed with my uncle in Brampton for three months, and when we started looking for a place for me, there was always this weird fixation with dietary preference," Singh said.

After searching for several weeks, he settled for a place in Rexdale, Etobicoke.

"My landlord didn't let me cook chicken or eggs in the house. He hadn't mentioned this in the ad. If I felt like eating non-vegetarian food, I would go to a restaurant," he said.

This subversive ploy to rent only to vegetarians is also seen as a way of determining caste and religion. It is not uncommon in India. Caste and religion-based segregation has led to the othering of certain peoples in India. Through food preferences, Indian or Indian-origin landlords in Canada have found a way to identify and ghettoize immigrants.

"The landlord had a spare room, and I had a Muslim friend who was looking for accommodation. So I asked my landlord if he could rent it to him. He made some excuses based on his perception of what Muslims eat and said no," Singh said.

At the time, Singh was paying $550 for one room.

"The rent was steep for what he was giving me. He would not attend to my requests for repairs. The heat and air conditioning wouldn't work. He didn't keep the place clean and would dump his spare furniture in the living room. He would also be very fussy about letting me use the washing machine," he said.

Singh said he would look forward to the weekends so that he could go and stay with his cousins downtown or his uncle in Brampton.

"I had become very wary of entering the house because I didn't want to bump into him. He was very nosy. He once said, "oh, you don't look like a Khalistan supporter." Just because I am a Sikh, he had assumed my religio-political identity," Singh said.

Singh, now a research scholar at 29, lives in Mississauga, where he feels much happier. But this pursuit of happiness took almost a decade since he first moved to Canada.

I lucked out with my housing experience. However, many of my classmates live in sub-standard housing with no lease and only cash payments.

Anvi Sanan was 19 years old when she moved to Toronto from India in December 2022 to pursue higher education.

"It was not easy finding a room. The first apartment I rented was in a terrible condition. There were leaks, broken appliances and even mice. The landlord was unresponsive to my requests for repairs," Sanan said.

She was paying $600 for the room in a house that she shared with six others.

"I struggled to find a better place, but most landlords wanted several months' rent upfront, which I couldn't afford. Despite my best efforts, I ended up in an overcrowded apartment with three other students, in a neighbourhood on John Garland Boulevard in Etobicoke. I didn't feel safe there," she said.

With rental prices in Canada soaring over 20 per cent in the last two years, there are hardly any decent options available to the international student. And in situations like these, landlords can intimidate and exploit newcomers.