Montrealers gathered at Parc Lafontaine with members of the Montreal Autonomous Tenants' Union Last Saturday (Aug. 19).

The recently formed union works to help organize Montreal tenants against illegal rent hikes, renovictions, and mistreatment from landlords. Now they’re trying to get 5,000 Montrealers to join a rent strike in protest of rising rents and the proposed Bill 31.

There’s a few different provisions in Bill 31, but it’s the ability of landlords to refuse a lease transfer that’s drawn the most concern, says rent strike committee member Sarah Toews.

Lease transfers are a key part of Quebec’s soft-touch approach to keeping rents low. Landlords have long been able to refuse lease transfers if a prospective tenant didn’t pass a credit or reference check.

If Bill 31 passes, however, they won’t need a reason. Toews says that this would effectively kill the practice.

“What landlord is going to accept a lease transfer when they can refuse it and increase the rent as much as they want?”

There’s a section on every new lease where landlords must input how much the previous tenant was paying in rent. If the new tenants think the landlord has raised the rent too much, they have a short window after signing the lease to appeal it.

In practice, though, Toews says there’s almost no way for tenants to verify the amount. Bill 31 would take away the last major protection for incoming tenants.

Despite tenants’ outcry, the provincial government has showed no signs of backing down.

That’s why the union wants to strike, and to get the thousands of tenants they’re aiming for, they're encouraging Montrealers to organize their buildings.

That’s what Kleri Sanchez is doing. He says he joined the union last month when dealing with an unresponsive landlord. Now he’s trying to bring his neighbours together to up their bargaining power.

“Me alone, I’m probably not going to be able to do too much, but when you have the collective, and [you’re] trying to mobilize collective power into actions that could benefit the community, that makes more sense.”

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