Quebec's human rights commission has ruled that a Montreal pizzeria must pay a man using a wheelchair $4,000 for refusing to serve him because of his guide dog.

In a decision published Jan. 9, the commission determined Pizzeria Napoli violated Michel Larochelle's right to access a public place with his guide dog, Strass, when it refused to let Larochelle sit in the St-Denis St. restaurant.

Larochelle, a quadriplegic paralyzed from the neck down, filed the complaint after he was turned away from the pizzeria while out with a friend in July 2005.

He has been paralyzed for 29 years, and relies on guide dogs to help him navigate sidewalks, clear steps and pick up fallen objects.

The 47-year-old Montreal resident was downtown to catch a Just For Laughs show when he and a friend decided to grab a meal. They entered Pizzeria Napoli and were being shown to a table when a waiter told them they couldn't sit in the section because he was allergic to dog hair.

The waiter – Pelligrino Montuori – claims he did not ask Larochelle to leave, but to sit outside.

Larochelle said they were given no choice and had to leave the restaurant.

The commission sided with Larochelle, and doubted the restaurant's allegation it tried to seat him elsewhere. If it did, the suggestion was made with "so little conviction that it is equivalent to an absence of offer of reasonable accommodation," human rights commission judge Pierre E. Audet wrote in his ruling.

The commission awarded Larochelle $3,000 in moral damages and $1,000 in punitive damages.