I'm in Parkdale here they're threatening to
withhold their rent starting tomorrow.
Residents living at this building
here near King and Dufferin say they
shouldn't be forced to pay more rent.
They, along with tenants at other
buildings owned by the same management
company say they're going on a rent
strike. It could be the biggest one
Parkdale has ever seen.
Hundreds of residents in Parkdale have
refused to pay rent fighting back
against rent increases in their
neighborhood now tonight they plan to
take their action to the next level they
are now planning to expand by doubling
the number of buildings participating in
the rent strike from six to twelve next
month the rent strike here in Parkdale
hit a new level today as residents set
their sights on the decision maker this
storm the hallways of the truck you know
demanding the property manager met back
scrapped the above guideline rent
increases for the entire neighborhood
the two sides are now sitting down to
talk and could be close to an agreement
for these tenants getting to sit across
the table from corporate giants is
vindicating after months of fear and
criticism over their tactics what once
seems like an impossible task has now
empowered an entire community they hope
others across the city can see them as
an example that no corporation is too
big to take on one of the reasons why I
picked Parkdale as a neighborhood
because there was a great community
aspect so it just kind of feels less
like you're alone in a big city there's
quite a few people that I see Brian our
bikes taking their kids to school
was just a very welcoming community and
I really enjoy that when I first moved
here I was a little bit afraid cuz
Parkdale has a bad rep but I soon
learned that it's one of the safest
neighborhoods in this city
you know I like the fact that Parkdale
is sort of close to everything so you
know we got the gardener right here so
it's easy access to get onto the
freeways and highways but yet we're
still in the heart of downtown you know
downtown is really only five minutes ten
minutes away I like living by the lake
and that cool breeze in the summertime I
used to live in the North End of Toronto
and neighbors weren't as friendly you
know more well-to-do when keeping to
themselves Parkdale has a large low
income tenants population we have a ton
of high-rise apartment buildings and for
the most part they're folks that have
lived in the neighborhood for a very
long time people knows me in Parkville
and I don't go in maybe everybody's
friendly they helpful
that's why I love the faggot 90% of the
20,000 people that live in this
neighborhood are renters and of them a
higher than average proportion are
paying over 50% of their wages to rent
directly it's a community that is used
to working class struggles people know
that we need to work together and we
need to kind of get on the same page if
we're going to see changes in our
neighborhood for decades Parkville has
been a neighborhood where a struggle has
taken place between working-class poor
tenants and their landlords or their
bosses or the government it's a friendly
neighborhood and people look out for one
another I met my first neighbor on the
day I moved in he just said welcome to
the neighborhood gave me a magnet that I
saw in my fridge and that's just one of
the things I have loved about Park girls
it's day one so the nice place to live
Parkdale is really diverse and its
really welcoming to lots of different
folks who are able to start families and
stay in the neighborhood for a very long
time people feel really supported and
there's a lot of community services that
are really in tune with different
communities that they're serving there
are over 20 primary languages spoken in
the neighborhood and it has a high
number of new arrivals from other
countries to Canada living here as a
refugee I've been living in other
countries like Nepal in India and I
never had this sense of belonging and
this sense of belonging that's a comfort
zone for a new immigrant so that
don't get lost in a new country in your
culture although we Tibetan people came
here as a refugee scatter Canada
majority people are thinking
bulbulay especially if you're visiting
Parkdale for the first time Gritty often
in your face this neighborhood is now on
the gentrification fast-track how could
it not be look where it is people have
talked about Parkdale facing
gentrification for maybe 20 years now
and I think the word gentrification can
sometimes make that process a little
unclear for people when the process
itself is very clear in our neighborhood
it's a process of displacement it is
mostly a phenomenon of force of economic
and physical force exerted on
working-class people that destroys
working-class life and working-class
neighborhoods rents are they increasing
and if they increase too much rent that
we cannot effort landlords trying to
pick up talent so that they can get milk
and from which they can get more money
the landlord tries to get that tenant
out so that they can do very surface
level renovations on the unit give them
new appliances a new coat of paint and
then they can jack up the rent
sometimes 50% and get a new sort of
10-inch into the building so not the
working-class tenants that live in
Parkdale not immigrant families that
live in Parkdale
but generally young professional well
off white tenants and also the state
plays into it as well deportations have
gutted this name
in a lot of really severe ways up until
only recently this had been a
neighborhood in which a large number of
Roma and Sinti Hungarian and checked
refugees came and threw the concerted
effort of the state they were they were
systematically removed from this
neighborhood and deported back to really
deplorable conditions there's large
parts of our community that are missing
the Tibetans have been living here for
almost now 15 20 years so it seems that
it's gentrification is disintegrating
the social vibrancy in part a so that's
really disheartening to see that part of
is a poor neighborhood and everybody
helped each other but other people move
in this area they acting like
differently like they are more important
and you and you believe he loved a
different kind of local spots closing
they put in a Starbucks that's changed
the banks are moving out that's not a
good thing
I know the CIBC closed down and I
believe the intent is to put up some
condo complexes there we have two condo
projects moving in and that's just the
beginning that's the thin edge of a very
thick wedge I think so yeah I think it's
a real issue for Parkdale is
gentrification Liberty Village is just
across Dufferin and it's moving in this
direction bloggers and today I'm in
Liberty Village one my favorite hood I'm
going to show you around Liberty Village
is kind of a created community it was a
lot of old warehouses in the
neighborhood that have slowly turned
into a huge condo development another
version of condo land
essentially it is not like single-family
homes it is not large apartment
buildings like it is a very
intentionally designed like professional
development that is designed in a way to
keep
people out brewpubs and bistros and that
kind of environment here 24-hour metro
expensive nail salons and waxing
facilities and here's the spot if you
want to get a mani-pedi on Sunday with
your bestie they wanted to make this a
Liberty Village West but it's not the
pretty village West it's Parkdale I want
to say like I see Liberty Village coming
to cocktail I see things being more
expensive I see more and more changes in
terms of identification and the types of
people that are moving into the
neighborhood that may not care about the
neighborhood as much as we'd like them
to
[Music]
for a lot of people in Toronto or even
people who heard about the rent strike
outside of Toronto it seems like it
started very suddenly that it was this
huge struggle of hundreds of
working-class tenants that just popped
out of thin air but the reality is that
it didn't pop out of thin air I have
seen fliers kind of going about either
on lamp posts or flyers in my building
or just kind of there's a bit of a buzz
just happening I wasn't sure exactly
what it was but I knew that I wanted to
learn more about it so I reached out to
Parkdale organized and then that's kind
of where the ball started rolling I
heard about Parkdale organized somebody
put a flyer on my door so that's how I
first got involved I mean colonisers
really you have done good job the group
Parkdale organized says they don't know
just yet what their next project will be
for now they're taking a much deserved
break after months of organizing
Parkdale organize is good with people
who have come together to organize in
our neighborhoods and people who are
hoping to build the working-class power
in the neighborhood so that we can take
control of the place that we live a
handful of people came together to try
and put an organization to the struggles
that people in the neighborhood had been
facing working-class people face a
myriad of individual struggles within
the neighborhood the idea was to
collectively through solidarity and
direct action
deal with those issues before the rent
strike Parkdale organized had been
around for fifty three four years and we
had been organizing building by building
knocking on doors with places where
people had been facing
French increases disrepair pest problem
and telling people that the thing that
they needed to do was get together with
their neighbors and confront their
landlord directly we had organized at
first slowly in a few buildings and it
was always a hard sell who are you
people
why are you knocking on my door what is
it that you want me to do and we started
to have successes initially struggles
around a major new player in the real
estate market achelous which is a real
estate fund based in Scandinavia that
bought up a bunch of buildings up and
down the boulevards in Parkdale tenants
at a park dale apartment building are
fighting back against their property
owner 188 Jameson the dreamer inside I
know people on 188 where some of my
relatives live also they had this
problem for a few months long before
other struggles that had kind of given a
bit broader conception of what it is
that working people struggle against in
this neighborhood was a worker initiated
strike over a food terminal two major
food hub the largest in southern Ontario
I think the largest in Ontario generally
that employs a lot of tenants in in
Parkdale they went on strike and people
from the neighbourhood supported them as
well once we had started getting those
successes are organizing became much
easier pitch when a bunch of people's
doors people had heard of us before we
started to be able to just buzz up to a
random unit in the building and say hey
we're from Parkdale organized you want
to come talk to you about something and
people would always invite us in those
campaigns started to put a different
idea out there within the neighbourhood
which was that the struggles that people
find themselves faced with not
individual struggles and don't need to
be dealt with individual
that organizing around those issues not
just protesting not just registering
dissent and not just complaining about
them but something that that could be
done so when this situation presented
itself when met cap ridiculously applied
for above guideline rent increases in
several buildings throughout the
neighborhood all at once this rent
strike it emerged from from all of that
previous organizing it for sure took the
actions of grade tenants in those
buildings but it had also taken a lot of
groundwork to get the neighborhood to a
point where it was ready for this type
of struggle
[Music]
my cap is one of two large landlords in
the neighborhood those being Metcalfe
and Vicki leus Brent Merrill is the CEO
now of Metcalfe
also directly owned some of the
buildings in the neighborhood he is a
greedy Pig he's not thinking about poor
people he think he and only but himself
if they increase in each and every other
rent then really we are facing problems
I've been here for three years and I've
gotten those rent increases year after
year a lot of the tenants that have been
here for a lot longer than I've been for
decades on top of it from the stories
that they've been telling they've been
going through those types of things for
years and years and years has always
been an above guideline rent increase
and above guideline rent increase is an
extra rent increased that landlords are
allowed to ask for on top of the annual
provincial guideline the Ontario
government says landlords are allowed a
certain amount and when the landlord has
done extra work in the building if they
have done some capital expenditures that
cost a lot of money they're allowed to
pass on these costs to the tenants to a
maximum of nine percent over three years
on top of a guideline amount so there's
the idea that things are can remain
affordable because of rent control is
actually quite a first one percent on
let's say a standard $1000 is about $10
right $15 to 1.5 percent whereas now
you're asking for four so $40 a month
it may sound trivial and the small runs
but you know for some of the people that
live in this area it's a lot of
blue-collar working-class people and a
lot of people that just came into the
country you know so some people have to
make decisions on whether they put that
extra money to rent or you know spend
that money on groceries or some other
people it's them staying in the building
or not it's not just kind of my personal
position in it it's knowing that an
entire neighborhood and my friends and
people that I would call family are
suffering along with me because they are
unable to pay their rent for these
unrealistic increase
people have tried to fight these above
guideline rent increases in the past but
they were never winning like the law was
not set up for tenants to win so they
had to come up with a new strategy if we
were going to kind of take on the law
and the landlord an opinion had started
to form in the neighborhood that we had
had enough
with the treatment that we had faced we
had had enough of our neighbors being
pushed out of our buildings one by one
month after month and then we were going
to do something about it and at the
something we were going to do about it
was going to involve direct action and
it was not going to be about advocacy it
was not going to be about lobbying it
was not going to be about raising
awareness because all of those avenues
had failed us rent strike was a tactic
that had been discussed by various
tenants doing various struggles up until
this point what a critical mass was kind
of achieved where enough people were
talking about it and the people felt
confident about the experiences that
they had already been through that they
were willing to take it on it started
with 87 Jameson steer the first ones to
go on rent strike we decide to hold back
the rent for a certain time and see how
he's gonna respond and he wasn't too
happy from that more conversation
started in different buildings around 87
Jameson liked on the same street in the
same neighborhood to talk about if there
was more people involved in this rent
strike if there was more people talking
to each other and organizing then we can
be a lot more effective and taking on
the landlord 87 Jameson have early
hauled off their rent strike and
initially tenants from that building and
members from Parkdale organize set out
to to make contact with other tenants in
other
I think the other buildings came on
board because we had people coming
organizing Lobby meetings learning what
they've been going through and how what
they were suffering through listen to
what I've been going through in my own
building or same thing that I'd seen
other neighbors go through as well just
the unresponsiveness from that cab for
me personally it was a pest control
issue and the lack of follow-up by met
cap in terms of cockroaches and mice I
joined the rent strike because of just
the way madcap treats people they took
you like a second-class citizen and I I
just thought it was time for a
correction in attitude I was happy to
join the rent strike and the fact that
there's a fantastic community I want to
organize I was just like it's time in
March we went to met caps corporate head
office on Richmond Street I think it was
about 70 or 80 of us that went down to
landlord's office all together they
locked us out they wouldn't take our
repair request they phoned the police
they told us we were trespassing we
managed to get up to their front door
and they they were behind the glass
laughing at us that's how they viewed us
it's not the first time they've been
protested and they thought this was
another flashing pan it would just go
away at this time it didn't go away so
tenants in this neighborhood are used to
having meetings in their Lobby so we
just had a meeting in the landlord's
Lobby to talk about like this was really
disrespectful the landlord doesn't even
want to speak to their own tenants
they're not addressing issues they're
legally required to address let's let's
let's talk about doing a rent strike in
the neighborhood meet decide on what the
next steps are providing these rent
increases and forgetting the units
we came here today to Trevor appeal to
them as people and they wouldn't even
address us so clearly the only thing
that matters is money so that's probably
the direction we're gonna have to go
there's a God to do something you got to
stop because they are indifferent to us
they are disrespectful they are
disregarding our concern so we got to go
on land right a ranch site so we came
back tried to think of next steps the
next test was to follow the same line
that 87 was on and go on to rhetoric
that was a process that involves lots of
door knocking lots of Lobby meetings
mass meetings as well as escalating
actions of engagement against my cat and
the rest is sort of history now let's
all go to the lobby let's all go to the
lobby let's all go to the lobby to get
ourselves a treat the lobby meetings
were organized I believe by Parkdale
organized a few people would show up and
talk to us about what the living
conditions were like and about the rent
increases we were facing and that way we
started to get to know one another and
sort of explore what was happening and
what we could do about it
I think Lobby meetings help the good yet
time to get opinions from different
people different and learn how to
strategize the lobby meeting this is
exactly what it sounds like they are
among the only public spaces in our
buildings where more than four people
can get
and discuss anything so a lot of times
at the building level that's where the
meetings take place unreal
talk about what's going on and what our
next step on what we plan to do so you
could keep anything and it will be very
often they took myself just going around
the building letting people know when
the next Lobby meeting will be you go
around door to door you knock on
people's doors you have conversations
but what's been going on with those
people what it is that they think about
it and you set a date for for a number
of people to get together from that
building and discuss what it is that
they're gonna do about it you know
obviously when they first started a lot
of people were very skeptical like what
is this they can be chaotic sometimes
it's part Dale there's a lot of
characters and everybody has something
to say to me it struck me as being a
little bit disorganized at first but I
thought this is worth getting involved
in it's become more commonplace for
people in the neighborhood meeting
people starts to know our face so people
are automatically in the building start
stopping and start saying hey what's
going on with this will you know what's
the update what's the word it made me
feel I had support going door to door
and putting out flyers to let people
know what we're all about what we're
hoping to gain by the rent strike our
Lobby meeting was just a good a good way
to get our neighbors connected and get
them informed and make sure that they
knew that they weren't alone in the
situation some decisions get made their
tops are giving up and then and then
those tasks are carried out and then you
have another Lobby meeting to go over
what's taking place and make further
decisions talking to each other trying
to get a consensus important thing is
this every can and get involved
inclusive nest
[Music]
one of the things I enjoyed the most was
the march through Parkdale lots of
support horn honking and people waving
at us the march through Parkdale which a
huge amount of people showed up for the
day we marched meeting in front of the
library and staying there with a few of
my friends and taking up space and being
loud and unapologetic about the fact
that we weren't going to tolerate that
cat's behavior any longer and getting
out into the community and just like
marching around and just picking up
people as we went along there were so
many actions it kind of took on a life
of his own at protesting one of the
owners in Forest Hill this morning a few
dozen tenants they boarded a yellow
school bus and took the protest right to
the front doorstep of one of the
property owners going to the tribunal
and everyone showing up there inside
court we almost nearly hundred people it
was a raucous start at the landlord and
tenant tribunal hearing young and st.
clair protesters delay the hearing by
more than an hour calling for Metcalfe
to give in to their demands
it was the incident when they tried to
run somebody over the truck incident was
friend Merrill a protest in June saw
Metcalfe CEO Brent Merrill narrowly
avoid hitting a protestor outside one of
his bill
having seen the video now I don't know
what it would happen if if I had gone
under the car as it goes off to the side
I really thought at some point he would
slow down it was really shocking really
shocking you always expect the worst for
Metcalfe that just blew me away I mean
that was just they just took the cake
that day they had messed up in a massive
way thankfully Kevin was all right but
in that moment I just like got them you
know I don't want to make this the
centerpiece of what's going on today I
think that what needs to happen is that
they need to recognize that this
community is not backing down we're not
leaving not the one force in all the
building not one force everybody that's
the highlight more than anything that
the collective will and the collective
strength was being fully accessed in
order to carry this out and that was a
hell of a thing to watch and participate
on my favorite part of the rent strike
was the way that it seeped into our
everyday lives he didn't feel as alone
in the building as you may have before
or you knew who was kind of fighting
with you I think it has been like such a
positive thing for the neighborhood
thing I think neighbors are now way more
open to having conversations for a lot
of us you know I didn't really talk to a
lot of people in my building before this
and now it's sort of it brought people
together I started running into people
on the street that would say hello to me
and I asked about the rent strike and it
just made for a much closer community
yeah I just helped build a community
quite a bit I feel like even those who
are not living in madcap tenants were
asking what's going on with madcap
what's happening now what the decision
it got pretty normal that there would be
an impromptu meeting in the produce
section of the no-frills
and it was those those moments that they
were honestly beautiful for me because
so often politics are
just wiped from from our daily lives and
you know people might go to a protest on
a Saturday you know somewhere that's
like half an hour transit ride from the
house but this reality of not being able
to stand on my balcony not being able to
go out on the street without meeting
someone who was in this struggle with me
who had been thinking about it all day
just like me who was worrying about it
who was making plans and really that
feeling that we were in this together
it was the only time in my life when I
had really felt that level of
camaraderie with the people who I lived
with the people I was surrounded by and
it just added this wait this this
content to both our daily lives and the
struggle you know we were all at home
thinking oh my goodness what's the next
thing I can do what else can I do to
help us win because the stakes were so
high it was so real and people are
really curious about what's going on and
are kind of really hopeful because they
see that the tenants are like making
some really huge wins and like wondering
like well how can we do this in our
building like how can we get involved
people wants to do something and they
like what is happening being the
different people that sort of jumped on
board along with us social support so
you know Queen Victoria all the teachers
there stood out on the block and made a
lot of noise on the corner of King and
the Jameson which is really amazing to
see it hundreds of residents here in
Parkdale are heading into their second
month refusing to pay rent in protest of
rent hikes here in Parkdale and now
they're getting the support of some
unlikely allies in the heart of South
Park dale right at the corner of King
and Jameson is a huge elementary school
so many of the kids from South Park Dale
go to that school
the Parkdale elementary school is
surrounded by 19 buildings owned by
Metcalf living five of them are facing
rent increases above the provincial
maximum conditions of poverty of
displacement those are things that are
felt most strongly by children
and the teachers in the schools are very
aware of that they see it in their
students every day they see when they're
tired they see when they're hungry they
see when they have bed bug bites or when
they're afraid that their parents are
going to lose their home they see it
when the students don't show up at the
next school year because they've been
displaced from our neighborhood you know
there were teachers at Parkdale
elementary who tried to take action when
Roma students were being deported on
mass from the neighborhood there were
you know teachers who have talked about
the conditions at the school who have
talked about conditions in the
neighborhood but it's always a problem
when those actions take the form of just
advocacy or raising awareness often the
worst conditions that that we face are
things that are very legal but are wrong
these above guideline rent increases
that have been displaced in our
neighbors are absolutely legal and what
was so amazing about the support that we
had from teachers in the neighborhood
was they've seen how this legal regime
of above guideline rent increases has
stripped our our neighborhood of its
working class qualities has forced
working-class people out of Parkdale and
they were willing in fact enthusiastic
about the opportunity to support
working-class people the parents of
their students in their formation of
working-class organizations that were
capable of taking on the things that are
legal but wrong
I'm in Parkdale we're striking tenants
are putting away their protest signs and
banners now that a three month rent
strike has ended with a negotiated
agreement with the landlord working
class people sat down across the table
from people that represented hundreds of
millions of dollars in capital and
didn't budge I was there for the
negotiation process and that cap came
and they had various employees from
Metcalf
when their main investor showed up I
think our tenon team really walked well
we had discussions and meeting before
the negotiations and we we knew what
they were up to and we knew our demand
usually had one or two representatives
from each building who'd been involved
in the rent strike all along each of the
main buildings that were participating
in the rent strike had a couple of
building representatives that kind of
spread information to the rest of their
pens in their building as well as speak
to all of the tenants in the building to
see what people wanted to do moving
forward the height there were close to
300 people on the rent strike and the
people at the bargaining table were
about 20 of us we went in there with
very very firm demands we had to
negotiate courts were not professional
negotiators so it was quite a learning
experience for sure
so Parkdale Community Legal Services
worked with those building
representatives through negotiations
with the landlord and the investment
person all in all the negotiation
process of it really really well and it
was a very good deal for Parkdale I
would definitely consider this a win I
think the tenants are really going to
want to talk about what the winners were
from the from these negotiations
unfortunately the details are
confidential the numbers are good so
good that Metcalfe has required a gag
order on
the actual specific numbers I would say
that we won yes and there's a lot of
people with smiles on their faces in
Parkdale I think the biggest and most
important result of the red strike is
that the Rennes strike has been
recognized by those that carried it out
as a tactic not an end in and of itself
and a tactic that's employed by
organizing by organizations that are
developed by working-class people there
is a shift socially and politically
underway within this neighborhood and
hopefully hopefully outside of the
neighborhood as well which is that
people are capable of doing things that
they are otherwise told by legal
convention and economic mandate that
they cannot do cheers at a park dale
building as residents mark the end of a
long battle sadly there's no shortage of
things for us to organize around so the
lesson that people should take is not
that they should move to a few other
neighborhoods in cariocans activity and
other neighborhoods should carry on this
activity different types of problems are
there each and every losing
gentrification is happening all over the
city it's not just in Parkdale so I
think it's important that people get the
message that when you stick together we
have a lot more power as a group than we
do as individuals I would suggest that
anyone
hi rent increases to get together with
their neighbors don't go alone you know
get your neighbors involved he organized
go as one which caused a unified front
get organized meet with people in your
building meet with people outside your
building you're more powerful than you
think a lot of people are really
skeptical I mean I remember back in
March and even an April we're starting
to organize the rent strike like even
some of the main organizers now we're
like you guys are nuts like this is
never going to work
everyone's they get evicted nobody in
this building wanted to get involved I
was the only person some people told me
don't watch the boat it doesn't affect
us but now that the rent strikes over
and the negotiations
everybody was everybody just cheering
this on right this is the greatest thing
since sliced bread some people are still
calling us iMac so some other and strike
like that Oh y'all did a great job when
y'all get started how y'all do this how
y'all do that you make you feel good but
the nation a difference I'm happy we
work out very well
I'm emboldened by this right people
now even if something that happens next
I'm having more people with joint
because you had that piece of big thing
there's power in numbers and we had a
loud voice in our voice with hurt that's
what people in the neighborhood have
learned from this experience is that
while there are individual working-class
people that are commendable the strength
and authority that is latent within the
working class which annually is
something that no other social force can
actually touch and it just has to be
organized and that organization takes a
lot of work the lesson to take is do the
work do the organizing carry out the
action win the day and prepare for the
next day
[Music]
[Laughter]