Woke gym sparks backlash for charging White members double the fee of BIPOC clients

NOVO SCOTIA, CANADA: A woke Canadian boutique fitness studio has sparked outrage after proudly displaying their prices in an advertisement, which charges people based on their race, with White clients being charged twice as much as non-Whites.

Such a policy violates Canada’s anti-discrimination law, as the prices mentioned in the ad amount to race-based economic segregation. 

Gym gives discount to non-White clients

R Studios, a trendy wellness gym based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, openly promoted an ad where there is $30 'drop-in' rate for White visitors while offering a heavily discounted $15 rate exclusively for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) customers.

"R studios in Nova Scotia charges double for white people, in violation of Section 5(1) of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act," wrote Jeff Evely, a retired Canadian Armed Forces veteran and candidate for the People's Party of Canada, in a post on X.

"The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission disgracefully made our human rights a fraud during COVID… CEO Joseph Fraser even made up his own extrajudicial provisions in order to avoid doing his job, in response to the complaints I personally submitted," he added.

Evely added that he will be appearing before the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals later this week, demanding legal remedy for what he called an "institutional failure of spine" - and a racially divisive gym pricing scheme that "would cause riots if reversed."

Gym policy for White customers draws backlash

The policy surfaced in the spotlight over the weekend after Evely’s tweet went viral and was then amplified by conservative media across the US and Canada. 

"Should this be investigated or shouldn't they be sued under human rights violations and targeted hate?" asked one user.

"Imagine if that was reversed, the uproar would shake the ground," wrote a second. 

"I'm white and my wife is Chinese so we would pay different prices?" queried another incredulous user.

One user mocked the gym's policy by writing, "I'm going to identify as Black to save 50 percent," while another declared, "I'm just not going anywhere I have to pay more. I don't know how anyone would degrade themselves paying more based on skin colour."

Gym removes all references to race-based pricing 

Following the backlash, R Studios quietly removed all references to its race-based pricing from their website on Monday, October 6, and even disabled comments across its social media handles. 

A user wrote, "I checked out the website and could not find this reference to different rates depending on race. So either this has now been changed or this is a false claim created by somebody…maybe a competitor. All staff looks to be white for what it’s worth."

The studio and its owner, Connie McInnes, are yet to respond to the backlash.

About R Studios

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

The gym 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 says 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.”

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