{"id":38922,"date":"2021-02-16T15:49:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T20:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=38922"},"modified":"2021-02-16T15:49:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T20:49:16","slug":"ontario-stops-residential-evictions-temporarily-during-covid-19-stay-at-home-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/ontario-stops-residential-evictions-temporarily-during-covid-19-stay-at-home-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario stops residential evictions temporarily during COVID-19 stay-at-home order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Ontario government issued a pause on residential evictions during the state of emergency and stay-at-home order put in place Jan. 14.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) continues to accept applications, hold hearings and issue eviction notices but the enforcement of evictions has been postponed unless needed in urgent situations such as illegal activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on Canadians financially \u2014 Statistics Canada reported that the economy lost almost 213,000 jobs in January alone, dropping the employment rate by 1.2 per cent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Since February of last year, Canada has lost 858,000 jobs leaving Canadians financially vulnerable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Before the province\u2019s pause in evictions, many fell victim to Ontario\u2019s \u2018eviction blitz\u2019 as a result of not being able to make rent payments with some being forced out of their home in the midst of a global pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Sam Hersh organized a protest to prevent a grieving widow from becoming a victim of the eviction blitz on Dec. 29, 2020. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cShe had to quit her job to take care of her dying fianc\u00e9 who was on dialysis. She wasn\u2019t able to pay her rent,\u201d says Hersh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Amanda Proulx's fianc\u00e9 died the day before her hearing with the LTB and her request for an extension for the hearing was denied. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">After losing a fianc\u00e9, she was then faced with losing her home as the sheriff and 12 police officers sought to evict her on that cold day in front of a dozen protestors. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The peak of the protest saw a dozen protestors who were unarmed and bundled for the weather. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s just such a small amount of people that even one armed police officer would have intimidated us enough,\u201d says Hersh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Hersh says these evictions underscore a \u201cfailure of our municipal government.\u201d He calls the police response to the eviction protest a \u201cmisuse of resources,\" and publicly tweeted the police funding could have went towards housing.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There were 12 of us there at the end of the day and 12 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OttawaPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@OttawaPolice<\/a> officers.<\/p>\n<p>Why did they need 12 heavily armed cops for 12 unarmed peaceful protesters. Beats me. Seems like a waste of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ottawacity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ottawacity<\/a> resources. Money that couldve been used for...housing maybe? 2\/2<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sam Hersh (@SamHersh01) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamHersh01\/status\/1344008922248728577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 29, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe police budget increase alone is $13.2 million this year, that\u2019s more than half of what all the community organizations got in funding from the city,\" says Hersh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In 2020, the City of Ottawa allocated $3 million to 73 social services organizations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s not a question of if the resources exist, it\u2019s a question of what are the city\u2019s priorities,\u201d he says, noting that the police make almost ten per cent of the city\u2019s budget.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39054\" style=\"width: 291px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39054\" class=\"wp-image-39054 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-281x500.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of Robin Browne standing in a patterned T-shirt\" width=\"281\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-281x500.jpg 281w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-500x889.jpg 500w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-1152x2048.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-121x215.jpg 121w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/RBrowne-standing-scaled.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-39054\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Browne, co-founder of advocacy group 613-819 Black Hub, identifies dangers to vulnerable communities during police-enforced evictions.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">According to Hersh, the police-involved evictions present the risk of excessive uses of police force.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThey were aggressive,\u201d he says and recalls the sheriff knocking Proulx\u2019s door down and cops shoving protestors out of the way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Robin Browne, co-founder of the advocacy group 613-819 Black Hub also outlines the dangers of police-enforced evictions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Browne recalls the deaths of Machuar Madut in 2019 and Pierre Coriolan in 2017 as they were killed by Canadian police, both of them being black immigrants suffering from mental health issues and receiving eviction notices before their confrontations with police.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">Browne says that subjecting vulnerable people to the threat of eviction during a pandemic is a \u201crecipe for disaster.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWith COVID, we certainly expect people are under a lot of stress. The last thing we need is adding eviction to the pile,\u201d says Browne. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">On Jan. 31, 2021 the province ordered the Ontario Regulation 13\/21, which states no person can enforce eviction unless the LTB requests the sheriff expedite the enforcement of the order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">The order is set to be revoked on Feb. 23 unless it is extended along with the stay-at-home order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOur government will ensure that residential evictions continue to be paused for the remainder of the state of emergency, as long as it lasts,\" said Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here is <span class=\"s1\">Sam Hersh speaking with CHUO:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ontario government issued a pause on residential evictions during the state of emergency and stay-at-home order put in place Jan. 14.\u00a0 The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) continues to accept applications, hold hearings and issue eviction notices but the enforcement of evictions has been postponed unless needed in urgent situations such as illegal activity.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":39058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,218],"tags":[284,6127,6128,2105,3399],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38922"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=38922"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=38922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}