A Waterloo, Ont. man who received a job rejection letter that cited his Somali background and a "culture of resistance to authority" will appear at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal Tuesday for mediation with the company that sent the letter.

Jama Hagi-Yusf is asking Integral Wealth Securities Ltd. in Kitchener to apologize to the Somali-Canadian community, to re-evalute their hiring practices and to compensate him financially.​ Both parties will appear at the OHRT and if they can't reach an agreement, the application will go to a hearing.

We all came to Canada to build a better life and so many of us have gone to university or college, and there's an expectation that that levels the playing field and this showed that it doesn't. - Jama Hagi-Yusuf on job rejection letter that cited his Somali background.

In May of 2015, Hagi-Yusuf applied for a job as an investment adviser's assistant with Integral Wealth Securities after spotting a posting on Indeed.ca.

Hagi-Yusuf said he applied around 1:30 p.m. on May 8, 2015, and an hour later, got an email that read:

"I have read stories about how Somalia has a culture of resistance to authority. Such a culture would be quite different than the Canadian culture sees makes cutting ahead in a lineup as a great social error.

"The investment industry is a subculture with its own rules and traditions. It is normal for people to train for entry into this field. While your academic career suggests the training would be well within your competence, there is no demonstrated enthusiasm in past experience for entering this subculture.

"Due to lack of background, I must decline your application.

"Good luck with finding a suitable position."

The email was signed by J Sandy Matheson, who confirmed to CBC News in the spring he had sent the email to Hagi-Yusuf.

Matheson has since retired from Integral Wealth Securities, CBC News has confirmed.

'Trying to be helpful'

"I didn't think the person was Somalian. The email was about how the person misunderstood the culture of the financial services world," Matheson said.

"I was trying to be helpful, that the attitudes I was getting in his telephone call were not helpful to him," Matheson told CBC News at the time. "There were norms within the industry that he was not meeting."

Matheson said the two spoke on the phone and then he sent Hagi-Yusuf the email, while Hagi-Yusuf said the two have never spoken on the phone and the email was the only contact he had with Matheson.

Overt discrimination

"Many, many Somali people including my parents and myself have faced discrimination in the job market, but something this direct in writing is rare and it touched a lot of people in my community, especially since so many of us have faced discrimination," Hagi-Yusuf told CBC News before the mediation.

"I'm an anxious and nervous but Saron [Gebresellassi, his lawyer] has made me feel very comfortable and I'm very hopeful that it will go our way," he said.

Hagi-Yusuf said he's heard from others that they were "touched and heartbroken" after he went public with his story.

"It was a direct attack on the Somali community specifically, but I think for a lot of immigrants, and specifically immigrants of colour and black people and people from the Muslim community, it was ... an attack on all of us," he said. "

"We all came to Canada to build a better life and so many of us have gone to university or college, and there's an expectation that that levels the playing field and this showed that it doesn't."

Worries over coming forward

Hagi-Yusuf said his parents were worried about him going public with his complaint, because they feared it could damage his future job prospects.

"The first couple months after it happened they were hesitant, they are still hesitant today, but because of the amazing community support that I've gotten today and the amazing legal counsel that I have today, they are lot more comfortable," he said. "They're anxious today but they're glad that I spoke out."

Hagi-Yusuf also said he's hopeful that his case will encourage employers to change their ways.

"While this was in writing, there are a lot of employers that do not – that might not put it in writing," he said. "I would like to say that it's not going to happen again but I have no idea."