The New Sheriff In Town

Quite a few years ago a community gathering was held with the, then, new landlord. A variety of community members were in attendance including a friend and neighbour. My friend observed the new landlord making inappropriate sexual advances on one of the tenants. She approached the new landlord and adviced him to back-down. The new landlord's reply, "I'm the New Sheriff in Town!" From this point forward my friend and neighbour was a target for relentless bullying. Luckily, it was determined that this individual had a white-collar crime history, demonstrated in a Canadian law database, to which I brought up and a hasty departure, "due to health reasons". It was amusing to watch the budget change from healthy to not so good in such a short time. I realize I am bullied because I am a whistleblower.

 In the complex I live in, I have a friend who I've known for a number of years. One day I visited him to say hello. He was crying that he had to return his box heater outlined in a letter from the landlord. "What's wrong? Don't your heaters work?", I said. "No", was his reply and his apartment was quite cold. "How long has it been like this?", I asked. "A year". I looked at his heater and, sure enough, it wasn't working. I decided to check the heaters in the cold hallways and they were also not working. The entire building had been without heat for an entire year. I understood why the tenants had not spoken up as they are either all or almost all BC Housing subsidized tenants. They were concerned about losing their home if they speak-up so either you live in cold and keep your home or speak up, get heat and lose your home. Being a subsidized tenant myself, I phoned the office and advised them that there was no heat in the building. I guess that's one of the reasons I'm a target. Kind of an "unheated" topic.

This same friend asked me a few weeks ago if he should go to the police as the landlord has relentlessly accused him of being a drug dealer. How do you prove a negative? Having known this fellow for a number of years I am fully aware he is not a drug dealer. He is, though, a social person and has many friends. Culturally speaking, english is not his first language and his ethnic cultural background, which is Latin American, is social in nature. So, if you have a number of friends, you are labelled a "drug dealer". I think back to the Citizenship ceremony of another friend and the Citizenship judge discussing the importance of respecting different cultural backgrounds as a Canadian value. One could easily say that the landlord is encouraging and participating in discrimination based on ethnicity. By mentioning this, I am concerned he may lose his housing.

In a society that encourages "Have" over "Have-Nots", the differences in rights, dignity and respect granted to the "Have-Nots" diminish with each passing moment. As a prime example, the housing complex I live in has BC Housing "subsidized housing" and "market-rate" housing, which really isn't "market" as it is also subsidized. Over a number of years the "market-rate" tenants have become the "Have" and the "subsidized tenants" are the "Have-Nots". The market-rate tenants enjoy quick repair services, regular maintenance, access to all amenities and services, power influence of the landlord and society board of directors, dignity and respect. The subsidized housing tenants are subject to less building maintenance, limited access to amenities and services, little to no respect and dignity and discrimination. A market-rate tenant who possesses a great deal of power and has been a stalker and bully towards me once expressed that the subsidized housing was only meant as "temporary housing". I liken the situation to classism based on socio-economic position in housing.

It is without question that writing about this issue will result in my eviction. It is my fundamental freedoms of conscience, thought, and expression, amongst others, that I exercise according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that I write this blog.