On April 18th, hundreds of tenants gathered inside a school cafeteria to help shape Toronto’s first city-wide tenant’s union – the TTU. There were elections, robust policy discussions and plenty of stories from tenants. Blueprints of Disruption was there to capture it all, and provide analysis afterwards.

On-scene interviews from inside the Toronto Tenant Union’s founding Convention start off with Ricardo Tranjan, housing policy expert and author of The Tenant Class. Tranjan talks about his expectations for the day, and his excitement at the prospect of “taking another step” towards building the tenant class consciousness he wrote about in his book.

There are also interviews with tenant organizers from different buildings across the city – including Jerry and Steve from 240 Markland. They talk about their saga with an REIT buying their building, applying for five consecutive above-guideline rent increases (AGIs) and trying to push legacy tenants out of the building.

We also interview Bridgette, a resident of the Caseway building – outside of which convention participants rallied after the day’s more official proceedings. She talks about why its been such a battle with their landlord, and how she felt about being a part of something bigger.

Organizers of the event, and leaders within the ‘parent’ organizations of the TTU also took time to speak with Santiago and Jessa as things wrapped up.

Aniket Kali, formerly of Climate Justice Toronto, and Bruno Dobrusin of YSW Tenants Union talk about their new roles (both elected during the Convention), the scaling up of their models, and their vision for the TTU in the years to come.

Hosted and Produced by: Jessa McLean and Santiago Helou Quintero

Call to Action: Sign up for TTU Orientation on May 9th, 2026

Related Episodes:

• Blueprints of a Rent Strike (July 2023)
• Shifting Gears: Climate Justice Toronto (Sept 2024) CJTO on their decision to transition towards tenant organizing as a means to fight climate change.
• We also have a TENANT POWER PLAYLIST with more stories of neighbours organizing.

More Resources:

• Can the new Toronto Tenant Union change the tired housing debate? – Ricardo Tranjan for Canadian Dimension
• Who Controls Toronto? The People or Developers? - ACORN Report
• Hamilton moves to strengthen renoviction bylaw - via CBC
• Rent Strikes! - The Grind Magazine
• Canada: How Tenants Fought Back- via Progressive International

All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support our work through monthly contributions: Patreon

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you

Greetings, friends. My name is Jess McLean, and I'm here to provide you with some blueprints

of disruption. This weekly podcast is dedicated to amplifying the work of activists, examining

power structures, and sharing the success stories from the grassroots. Through these discussions,

we hope to provide folks with the tools and the inspiration they need to start to dismantle

capitalism, decolonize our spaces, and bring about the political revolution that we know

we need. April 18th was the founding convention for the Toronto Tenants Union, the TTU. We

were excited. We were not going to miss this. Both Santiago and I were there on the ground

and we are now reporting back to you. It was a really great experience overall. I mean,

this isn't a wholly new organization that has started. The reason we were so excited was

because it's actually a merger of two groups that we've had on the show before, the York

Southwestern Tenants Union and Climate Justice Toronto, or CJTO. Acronyms everywhere. And

I will get some of them wrong, I'm sure. But Santiago, as soon as we heard York Southwestern,

uh we're ready to sign up. Yeah, the York Southwestern Tenants Union has a very special place in

my heart amongst organizing in Toronto. They've been doing amazing work for several years.

Not only have they led like what I believe is the largest rent strike in the history

of Toronto at least. I might have to fact check myself on that. But it's also just the way

that they've gone about their organizing. They've always centered building community and just

they've, there's someone who understands that like we can't always be on. the defensive when

it comes to fighting for our rights. They're strong advocates. They've pretty much been

leading the chase in Toronto, fighting against stuff like, was it, God, I got all these

bills mixed up now. Was it bill 90, bill 60? Bill 60, which just passed. But yeah, we also

heard them bragging about how they helped shut down Fieldstar. that AI tool landlords were

using to artificially increase rents, like they need any help. Yeah. Although Bill 60 did pass,

a lot of it didn't pass with everything included. They had to remove, like for example, ending

the automatic renewal of leases where once you finish like your year lease, it just goes month

to month indefinitely. Landlords wanted to take that away so that they could... Evict tenants

easier, bring in higher paying tenants. That was removed. Your Southwestern tenant union

fought very hard for that. They were some of the leaders in the fight. I've been there on

the ground seeing them fight against illegal evictions, for example, putting themselves

on the line. You know, they've they're really an amazing organization. So the idea of them

coming together with a group like Climate Justice Toronto. to launch a Toronto-wide tenant union

feels like such a natural extension of that work that they've been doing. And there's,

oh God, we really need this in the city. No, I was so excited, um especially Climate Justice

TO. um When we spoke to them almost two years ago now, but we'll link the episode. They were

in this transition. seems like an odd pairing, right? Climate Justice Toronto is forming a

tenant union. But they did at the event and they did it in our episode, a great job of

explaining why they're doing that shift. And it makes so much sense to us too, based on

what we do here and all of the tenant stories that we've heard is they became it. you know,

assistance to the tenants unions. They were doing whatever they could to kind of help,

which now makes sense to come to this larger project of the Toronto Tenants Union. I wonder

if they they envisioned this. Yeah, I think we called the episode with them shifting gears

because that's exactly what they were doing. So I feel like this is culminated into this

huge event. I think they estimated about 300 people were there. And I imagine more than

that are ready to sign up for, to be in the tenant union, right? uh Whether they're ad

hoc members or small buildings, large buildings that have already organized. The idea was to

have a single union across the city that could, you know, be that much more powerful. So we

did a really good job of collecting stories. throughout the day that we're going to share

with you. I just want to set the stage a little bit. It was in a school down in the West End.

I had free parking. So I was super excited about that. But we felt we were on like the

precipice of something historic. We were giddy when we arrived. What were you expecting?

I don't know what I was expecting, but just seeing being there, seeing that many people

all coming together for something like this. You know, it was it was well put on, you know,

there was there was good food, uh lunch and dinner provided. And. I was just so hopeful

about what this could mean, you know, it felt like we were witnessing a moment in history

where maybe the the the fight changes a little more in our favor, you know, ten issues being

like such a such a a great place for us to like. put our energy in fighting against. I wish

I had this percent of stats on me, but is it 50 % of Toronto is tenants, something like

that? The province is 30. Which you can imagine it's just so much higher in the city. I know

in my in my neighborhood in Parkdale, it's 90 % are tenants, you know. And when it comes

to, you know, the exploitation that we can experience, mean, landlords have been getting away with

so much shit. They've been It hasn't stayed neutral on their front. Landlords are constantly

fighting to make our lives more and more difficult, to make it easier and easier for them to exploit.

know rent evictions are on the rise. The use of above guideline rent increases are on the

rise. know, overall, we know that landlords are taking the fight to us. So it's nice to

to see that, like now we're building the capacity. to be able to fight back harder en masse and

so that people who want to get into the fight but maybe don't know how now have an avenue

that makes that a little bit easier for them. Absolutely and some structure, you know,

that is a tactical decision but surely it's going to help that a lot of these folks are

not just going to have to walk and figure this all out by themselves. I loved it, you know,

it was in a school cafeteria, it was lined with banners that, you know, read tenant power

and stop raising rents. There was clear class consciousness as well, both in the speeches

that we, introduced the event. Climate Justice Toronto openly avows themselves as socialists,

right? And the goal is to take housing off the market. Like that is the long-term goal of

the project. And hearing that right off the bat and everyone booing. Doug Ford at the

appropriate moment. um It was a really good kickoff. so obviously we had our eye out for

Ricardo Trenjan and we did in fact bump into him. So I think it's suiting that we kick

off our interviews with Ricardo, talks about his expectations for the day. Yeah, he was

a bit of a celebrity that day, you know, he had His book, The Tenant Class, which we spoke

about on the show. I got mine signed. Yeah. I wish I brought mine. Funny story. I'm actually

I'm in the middle of a move right now. And when my landlord was coming by to do a little move

out inspection, I made sure to leave a copy of The Tenant Class in clear view so they knew

who not to fuck with me. But no, was it was great seeing, you know, I mean, this felt like

such a an embodiment of that philosophy that went into that book, you know, of the tenant

class uh as a point of organizing. You we've heard a lot of talk about the working class,

but this is really like another avenue to organize. And now we have the union with which to fight

with. Ricardo looked as excited as we were.

We figured we'd find you here. know, author of the tenant class. This is definitely the

kind of crowd that would appreciate your work. Everyone is really excited. The room is buzzing.

How are you feeling going into the formation of a Toronto Tenants Union? Well, this is

extremely exciting. We talk a lot about housing in the media. The politicians love talking

about housing. The researchers and pundits like myself talk about housing all the time. And

we're always talking about the policy solutions, whereas what we really need is a political

response. And then I think that's what these folks here are putting together today, a real

political response, not a policy solution, not a policy tweak, but a real political response

to the issue. Do you see this as a key step in forming this tenant class, this different

kind of mindset of looking at how we approach housing? You you heard them say we need to

take uh housing off of the market and... the crowd cheered, that must have made you feel

pretty good, right? That's where you were going with your book. Yes, this is one more step.

These folks have been doing some amazing organizing work for years and then they got here now

and they are now inviting more people under this tent. And I think there's an immense need

for that. Through my work, get to move around a bit and talk to people who are really interested.

in forming a tenant union and getting together with other tenants and then fighting back.

But often it can be a little bit hard to do that. Where do I even start? The landlord is

so powerful. It's so hard to find time to get everyone together. And once we do get together,

what are we going to do? What are the next steps? The mechanics of it can actually be a little

bit intimidating and hard to pull that together. And so that this one group... is getting together

with a few other groups that already has that experience and then inviting anyone to come

under the tent. It's really amazing. It's necessary. And I think it responds very directly to a

very concrete need on the ground. People want to organize. People are ready to fight back.

But sometimes they need to know how. And if they come here, they're going to learn how.

People seem to be excited to go through what they call like the nitty gritty, right? These

steps, the structure, the vision. What are you hoping comes out of this? What's your best

case scenario, your expectations for today? As an observer, someone who stepped outside

of this, I just like what I've seen. I think they are from the get-go, building an open,

democratic process. It's tenant-driven. It's for and it's by tenants, the tenant union,

all the people in the room. They're going to make all the calls. People like myself, researchers,

lawyers, people with technical knowledge in construction, whoever has something to bring

to the table and is willing to support, I think we will be welcomed to. But with the clear

understanding that they're calling the shots, they're telling us what to do, it's the tenant

union led by tenants, and if they tell me what they need... If I can, I would do it.

And I think that's the relationship that needs to be established from day one, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, one thing I thought that they could draw on your expertise for is one of the questions

is going to be who is a member of the tenant union? You know, obviously a tenant of a landlord.

That's the obvious answer. But there's questions on whether children who live at home with their

parents or not children, youth, you know, or couch surfers or folks who are on house living

in encampments. I thought. or homeowners. One of the suggestions is perhaps homeowners who

are recent homeowners who want to be part of this tenant movement should be allowed to be

part of the tenant movement. Do you have an opinion on that? Even though you're not going

to be a voting member, I feel like, are they part of the tenant class? I think the key

question here is one of mobilizing resources broadly, but then leaving for the group

that has the legitimacy to decide where and how those resources are deployed. Sorry, that's

a little bit of a run around question, but I think it is a big part of any movement is

to figure out how to... galvanize the level of resources that you need and that involves

some hard decisions about homeowners, people who are uh in different political places

in terms of the political spectrum, right? What is some tenant with very strong conservative

views coming and so on and so forth. So there are these very difficult, very... real difficult

questions that the movement is going to have to address. But I think fundamentally, that's

the point. We want to governize resources. um But once you do have those resources, I

think it's only that elected, democratic elected leadership that has the legitimacy to make

the decisions on how to deploy those resources. Right? think that's... I think, that was a

very politically correct way of saying what I said. I was just like, well, they can take

their dues, but maybe don't let them vote. Because, yeah, like this takes a lot of resources to

put on in the fight that they have. So, yeah, it's a question that the membership will have

to decide for themselves, which is the exciting part, right? Where is everybody at? So I very

much appreciate you taking the time to answer some questions. We just dragged you out of

the convention. So, yeah, thank you, Ricardo. And according to the episode. Oh, yeah. Okay,

so Ricardo talks about some of the discussions that we ended up hearing on the floor after

we spoke to him. I don't think they anticipated having so much discussion on these items.

It was very true to form of any convention you've ever been to. Leftists did not have enough

time to really get into these because they weren't easy decisions. This was a founding uh convention.

I can't imagine the pressure on folks trying to organize to this end, but to start with,

when you checked in, you were given a founding document. So people had already put the work

in to create what they called a city of tenants. You know, it's broken down into sections like

where we are, what we're fighting for, how we win and what now. This was something folks

did have access to beforehand to some level. Folks were asked, you know, do you agree?

Do you disagree? Let's bring some amendments to the floor. And there were amendments.

I don't think they went through them all, but two of the major discussions that took place,

as you heard Ricardo talk about, like who is a tenant? Who should be not just a member,

but it was like an ideological question too, right? Who is part of this tenant class? Who

can we trust? Who will we put our resources to? And then, yes, the second major discussion

that they had was essentially, will we participate in electoral politics? We've got some opinions

on that. Yeah. Listen, this show will not be surprised what our opinions are on the

electoral politics. But it was a very interesting discussion. think it was interesting to see

that it was. Fairly evenly divided on the topic ah As to whether or not you know There

should be an involvement in electoral politics and if there is what what should that look

like? Are we gonna put money behind that? Are we gonna is it just gonna be you know in name

or just purely volunteer time? You know, what kind of resources go into this? It's almost

a shame that like I'm given the limitations of it being you know, one day in person. It's

a shame that like we couldn't dig into these things a little bit deeper. But you could see

like, you know, it was fairly evenly split on that. Right. I think in terms of whether

or not to participate in electoral politics was split. Right. You even in the interviews

that you'll hear a few folks invoke the NDP and other political figures that, you know,

policy-driven type change. But it was ultimately a measure, I think, of the class consciousness

in the room too, when it was like, okay, we might support these folks, but are we gonna

use the badly needed resources that we're gonna accumulate towards that end? Right? It's one

thing to, you know, they might've had mixed feelings on whether or not you abandon electoral

politics, but I think... judging by all the stories that they had and how many resources

these folks need to wage a decent fight, most of them were very reluctant to spend those

resources on a candidate, on a campaign. One thing I found really interesting though, when

they're talking about, you know, in the existing documents, and I think the audience will find

this interesting, I hope. is they set a list of criteria. So it wasn't just like, we endorse

a candidate and then argue about their merits? They were, you know, at the founding of their

organization already trying to put thresholds and very specific criteria on potential political

candidates to earn their trust and their endorsement. Yeah, very high bars, mind you. most notably

the 10 % of their salary would go to the tenant union. And that raise, you that is very interesting

for a lot of reasons. One, like it is the Toronto tenant union, but it's actually not the only

one, right? So to get 10 % of those resources for an endorsement seems like a risky move

for a politician to make for a lot of reasons. But I think like, they were on purpose setting

the bar very high. it's not like Olivia Chow is ever going to be endorsed by the Toronto

Tenant Union, right? Like this criteria means it'll only be people who are like the most

committed. And they even outline like with a proven track record of commitment towards

the tenant fight in Toronto, something that none of the... No, mean, definitely no one

who's currently sitting on the city council or the mayor, um nor I can't even think of

any candidates who have ever reached that bar in Toronto. Well, I would argue like Kiara,

one of the founding members of York Southwest and Tenants, you know, a lot of folks talked

about her campaign and what it did for centering tenants in the political discussion. And I

think folks were still hopeful. Even Kiara, you know, got on the floor herself and mentioned

that she saw real hope in getting a tenant on city council. In the end, I think membership

decided that they were definitely open to possibly endorsing a candidate should they meet all

these criteria that passed. But easily, they shot down the idea of using their fund towards

a campaign. So it'll be interesting how they navigate that moving forward. But the real

class consciousness question came around who was a tenant. And it wasn't just homeowners

like we asked Ricardo, right? It was, should it be people who work for the landlord? Now,

sometimes that's like a floor supervisor, depending on how big your building is, or it's just the

person who lives there and takes care of the place. A lot of folks attested that like

this. Sometimes that person was the glue that held their building together, but that's kind

of felt like, oh, I talked to a good cop. What did you think about that discussion and how

it ended up? It's a difficult topic. Absolutely. And something, you know, as a tenant myself,

I sympathize with, you know, I think of like the super in my building who also, you know,

they do a lot of like the cleaning work around here. Someone who is probably the person in

my building that I'm closest with. Right. Do I think that their interests are different

than my interests? I don't. But it also is very reminiscent of kind of the conversation

when it comes to like classical unions of management being involved in the union, right? And the

stance has long been that management has has different interests. And we all know, like,

I'm sure a lot of us out here have worked for good managers. Some of us maybe have even been

managers who have been very sympathetic to the workers cause and that's great and it

definitely exists. But on a whole looking at it, like there's always been a reason why management

has been excluded. know, when your interest, like your salary is tied to this, it's a different

kind of interest, you know. It's difficult. I think that those challenges were very reflected

in in the conversations around it where people were had very strong opinions about it were

very, you know, twisted on it. think some of those strong opinions though, came from personal

anecdotes. And when it's very compelling, when someone gets on the mic and says, I'm about

to be voted out of the union. And it's hard to like look that person in the face and be

like, I can live with that, you know, because we have to think of the long-term vision, not

just. you know, the feelings and inclusions of absolutely every good person. ah So they

found a bit of a medium there where on the at least on the discussion of homeowners, they

can actually be associate members where, like I said to Ricardo, they could pay dues, but

they're not going to have voting rights. Remember, this passed really, really easy. But when it

came to the discussion of these other roles, including I love that part of the amendment

was cops, right? So someone moved an amendment that nobody who works for the landlord should

be a member. No cops, no spouses of cops. m I believe that was everybody. But I think the

multiple inclusions made the discussion a little bit more difficult. I would have loved to see

that pass. I don't think it did in the end. No, no, but there was a very clear support

on the floor for like... not including cops, it was just the difficulty of what does it

mean for all staff of landlords, you know? Does that include the plumber? You know, ah it's

a difficult question, but these are the kind of questions, you know, when you're trying

to form an organization of this size, like it's important to answer and it's difficult to do

so with a time constraint. I mean, those of us with convention experience, that's how it

always is. Right. Yeah, I won't lie. We both had flashbacks of conventions that we've

been to. I think it's an incredible challenge trying to do what they're doing at the moment.

And we witnessed a little bit of growing pains where, you know, definitely more people wanted

to speak on issues. Some people weren't perhaps happy with the outcome. So this is something

they're going to have to do moving forward is navigating folks across the political spectrum.

But it was grassroots democracy in its infancy here. And what we did hear, as a lot of people

got to the mic to speak for or against, was there, and in the speeches, a common thread

of these horror stories with landlords. We've told them here many times on Blueprints before.

There are so many. And that's good news, bad news. It's awful that so many people deal with

this, but it is a uniting element, right? And there's this theme of not doing that fight

alone, right? just ran right through this event. One thing that I want to mention that was

a really cool part of uh being there in person, seeing a lot of the tenants from uh some

of the original rent strikes and organizing that the York Southwestern Tenant Union has

done, uh all got bussed in together and they were all wearing their, uh they had branded

hoodies that said, what was it? uh I fought a rent strike and won or? Yeah, something

like along those lines. And that was just really great to see because, you know, it also goes

to show the reach, you know, because I mean, there was a lot of people there who come from

like our activist background, as many of us do. Do we have different causes across the

city? Different things that are interested in. like one thing that they spoke about was

like that this group of people spoke about a lot of them never saw themselves as activists

or maybe never even paid that much attention to politics beforehand, but through organizing

for their rights, through fighting for their rights, for tenants' rights, you know, they

found themselves getting involved in this. And now they're fighting not just for their own

rights, but for the rights of tenants across the city. Yeah, even Jerry, we're talking to

him. He's at this convention. He's fighting the good fight and he's like, well, I'm not

an organizer. I'm behind the scenes. Reluctance, right? Like you are in fact an activist, my

friend, and an organizer. um But yeah, we're gonna hear from Jerry and Steve from 240 Markland.

It's a building out in Etobicoke. And you know, they too have a horror story of a landlord,

but they do a great job, I think, of talking to why we needed a Toronto Tenants Union and

then some. One of the big focuses you're going to hear about in this conversation is above

guideline rent increases. And I'm sure a lot of listeners are familiar, but just in case,

just to go over it again, you know, here in Ontario, we do have a kind of rent control

where buildings built before 2018 can only increase rent by an amount set by the province every

year. I think last year it was like 2.5 % or something along those lines. uh every single

year. Now, there's ways, there's loopholes that landlords use and the above guideline rent

increases is one of them where if they have any maintenance or construction projects that

are a significant capital investment, well, then they can apply to increase the rent beyond

uh that provincially set guideline. Now, a lot of times one thing you'll see is changes

made to exterior buildings, renovations on balconies, know, aesthetic changes that do very little

for the quality of life of the tenants, but that allow landlords to be able to jack up

their rents more and they're making money off of that. And one of the issues, you know,

with above guideline rent increases is, you know, a lot of times landlords will simply

go and say, we're raising your rent more. pending approval from the landlord and tenant board,

but they're already started charging you before they even got approval. So tenants are left

kind of wondering, do I have to pay this? Do I not have to pay this increased rent? And

we're seeing more and more frequently landlords who are pursuing this year after year, you'll

have one one year, one the next year and the next year. And that's something that very much

happened. to Jerry's building out in the Tobacco. So I'll let Jerry take it away from here. Okay,

you're gonna work it? You're gonna think it's over. Okay. So it's my understanding that the

two of you organized within your own building against an AGI. Is that right? Not me. was

another guy, Mike. I've been in the background the whole time, but it was Mike and Steve that

did all the organizing. So I was just been, I'm a supporter more than an organizer. Okay,

so yeah, so myself and another gentleman did organize a tenant association to fight back

against AGI's in our building. We're currently on the fifth AGI, fifth consecutive year of

AGI's in our building. We just recently had the first one go to the hearing. Obviously

we lost because the AGI's process and hearing, it's for lack of a better term, it's a kangaroo

court, but just in March, 2026. We received our fifth consecutive AGI in our building.

But you're just contesting the first now. No, just recently, the first one just went to the,

just got completed. Because of the delays in of the delay in the system, yeah. When tenants

have claims. Correct. Right. So how long was it between your inception as, you know, a tenant

organization, officially or not, to when you organized against this AGI? Or was that...

at the same time? Is that what the impetus was to organize? be honest, it was pretty much

around the same time. Yeah, it's kind of what caused it to happen was because of the first

AGI and the bad treatment of the landlord. We understood and realized that something had

to happen. So that's where people started getting on board and pushing their way through. So

your tenant union is joining the Toronto Tenants Union, is that correct? That is correct, yes.

How many members do you have here today? Today there's just the two of us. We were supposed

to have a few other people here, but it didn't work out. So today the representation is just

the two of us. I'm not going to sing the song, but yeah, you guys get the idea. But you and

I, but yeah, but we are here on behalf of the 240 Mark Land Tenants Association. And

how excited are you that you're going to be part of a larger union after this? was just

telling Bruno how ecstatic we are to be here and that he's gotten this. grassroots thing.

Yeah, you can see that when this thing goes, it's going to go fast and hard. We're already

talking about, like, you can see when Toronto organizes and outlining cities like Hamilton,

for example, they were the first city that put the bylaws against the renovations. You know

darn well that those TAs are going to hear this, see this. It's going to be a domino effect.

I think that probably by end of the year, most of Ontario would probably be... involved

in somehow with the larger Tenants Association Union. So I think this is nothing but positive.

Do want to take a moment to speak to the importance of tenant organizing? How you've seen a difference

in how you relate to the people in your building and how that then turns the tables in terms

of your relationship with your landlord? Um... Do you mean me personally or the tenants as

a whole? can answer to both, but I'd love to hear your personal. Okay, it's... Here, let

me put this first. I'll put my piece in first. So Steve is like the spokesperson for us.

He's our book guy. learned, like, when we go to fight with the landlord, he knows his stuff.

So due to that, they have spent so much money and time and effort... trying to, they have

false claims. They're trying to get him evicted. He's actually got a personal case in front

of the LTB right now. I'm currently in Portwood. I'm currently fighting evictions. Because they

know that he's the snake. If they cut the head off the snake, the snake dies because he's

the guy. He's the one who stands up for everybody. Unfortunately, I think our building relies

a little bit too much on the poor guy. But ah yeah, so I can say that the TA is so important

in our building. because of guys like Steve and Mike is another huge one. have, there's

like five or six different people and they've put their things in towards making it a association.

The other, the real reason there was a need for a tenant association is there was a large

percentage of seniors in the building. So the problem that we were facing was that high

percentage of seniors, um No computer savvy, no internet. They didn't know what to do.

When the landlord was saying, oh, we're switching to an online portal, people didn't even know

what that was. They wanted to convert everybody to online payments and no more checks and

things like that. They were very intimidating when they first bought the building. well,

because again, going back, they wanted to rip our building down and the City of Toronto

said no. So then they basically is right out of TV land where they did almost everything

except for saying sending gangs of thugs to push us out of our apartments. Probably 35,

40 percent of the people actually left just to do the harassment and bullying from our

landlords. So again, that was kind of a reason why we decided we had to do something. We had

to stand up for these people. It's what's taken place at our building. It's like right out

of like an 80s TV show. what they've done to get rid of legacy tenants, it's like you

could put it on a YouTube channel. It's bad. it's and people have given up. people like

it's just and like we've gone to great lengths to fight for people and fight on behalf of

people. And like it's not only that people don't have a voice, but like people like or

seniors and they didn't even know how to fight and they're scared to fight and they're scared

to fight. Like some people like like people. People are scared to put in a work order

for, like we have tenants who have been in the building for 50 years and they're scared

to put in a work order because their 50 year old vanity is falling apart. Not because they've

done anything wrong, but because it's 50 years old and because the landlords led them to

believe that they'll be evicted if they do anything about it, right? So it's bad. One thing I

want to ask about was when it comes to the fight against AGI, it's my understanding that typically

AGI's ah It's like two, 300 pages of documents that you have to go through, right? Which can

get like expensive really quickly, right? Well, it depends, right? It all depends on... I

don't know that I would agree with that. Can it be two or three hundred pages? That was

the average that I heard. Well, I don't know that I could agree with that. There's so many

variables. It depends. It depends on what they're AGI-ing you for. It depends what's involved.

It depends on what kind of construction. Like, to be honest, that's a number that I don't

know that I could agree with. The reason I was going to ask about it was just simply about,

like, the difficulty with being able to fight these things, you know, it takes uh legal understanding,

hiring paralegals and so, sorry, that's the funny part too, is in the process of us doing

this, we found out really fast that there is very little legal representation for tenants

associations within Ontario. Even in our first hearing, they actually admitted right at the

LTB that there's one or two at best and neither of would even talk to us. So what were you

going with your question? It was pretty much just about how stuff like Toronto Tenant

Union can be able to help out when new fights are coming out, people who haven't previously

been organized and don't have the resources to be able to do it, to be able to connect

with that. Are you hopeful that this will help? Hopeful. Help new groups be able to find

the resources they need to be able to fight back. Yeah, and then hopefully that this union

will allow people that connection to find resources. The secondary problem, is more so the first

problem, is that hopefully this union will be able to even find those resources because

those resources aren't really even there. Like one thing that... pointing to what Jerry was

saying. One thing that we learned quick is those resources are so scarce. Like the legal

aid that is advertised. So what happens is in an AGI process or an eviction process,

whatever the process is, whatever the action is that the landlord is taking against you

as per the legal process, you're provided a document that says if you require legal advice

or if you require... Dot, dot, aid. These are the phone number. This is the phone number.

This is the email address. This is the website, okay, as an example. Hopefully I'm not getting

too in-depth for you guys. No. Okay? problem is, it leads you nowhere, okay? Like, it's

all a dead end. The resources that they claim to be there aren't there. I don't know if they

just think they're there and they're not. or if they just want you chasing your tail, the

resources aren't really there. The resources we were able to obtain were through organizations

like Bruno's, York Southwestern, or people will be able to find it now that there's a

tenant union. The only reason we were able to find the resources we were is because we connected

with other associations. If you're gonna rely on the legal aid or... whatever was provided.

It's not there. It was really our resilience that got us to where we got. And a few people

in our tenant association that really worked hard to basically get where we were. People

really need this tenant union. That's why we're so ecstatic about it. It's needed. I don't

know that we're there yet. But this thing needs to be funded. it's, as you said, it might

be a pipe dream, but like, it needs to be looked at where something like this is funded. It's

one day because where they think they're putting their money and where they think they're

providing a resource, it really isn't. And we were able to find resources and move forward

in our fight. I'm kind of tooting our horn here. I'm good. Mike's good. Not to go against

people. people, and Bruno's good. But people give up. Not to shame, not to put negative,

but like, oh I don't give up. Like I'm bad like that. Like I'm that chihuahua that won't

stop, right? It's just, but people don't have that. So like, and the LTV knows it, right?

And that's where I'm going with that. It's not a me thing. It's just that that's part of

like, they know after the third or fourth phone call or the third or fourth email to this

paralegal or to this um legal clinic that like you're going to give up. And we got

those closed doors and we got those dead ends. Like it's it's because we didn't give up.

Yeah, the media, we attached ourselves to every media possible. Majority of them wanted

nothing to do with it. Like it's the whole Ontario uh Landlord Tenant Association relationship

is, it's fixed. And that's why this excites me so much because throughout history, there's

only one thing that stands firm and that's power in numbers. And the more people you get, the

stronger you get. This thing goes across Ontario like I'm hoping. The governments, all three

levels of governments will have to listen. When you have that many people, like millions

of people in one organization, they have to stop and listen to us finally. Our building

has been covered three times by the CBC. Nice. Yeah, like if you look up 240 Markland Drive

in Etobicoke, you will find three editorials on our building. We saw the CBC here as well

today. Oh, OK. Yeah. It's important folks hear those stories so that they know it's possible.

You will see us, you will hear us, and you will read. on our building. Because we only got

number one done. We got four to go yet. So we got a lot of fight to go. Where is your building?

Which branch are you going to be a part of once you leave here? OK, so technically we would

be in an Etobicoke branch. OK. But there isn't one yet. um But this is the inaugural meeting.

yeah, because as you saw the map that they posted earlier, we're like Bloor and Markland.

So it's here. Sorry, you can't see. It's the York one or the City of Toronto one. We're

kind of like right smack dab in the middle. Oh, okay, There's one for the core, there's

one for the of the west end and then everything east of the novel. We'd be west end, I guess.

We're west, so, because again, we're like, we're like Centennial Park area. Okay. Yeah. So,

I think, yeah. So you'll be part of a larger family immediately, right? The branch will

be formed today. You'll be put in touch with other tenant unions that are... tenant associations.

We've gained more power today just by being here and signing up to this because now we

have this huge collective behind us. And we've attended ACOR meetings and like we've done

all that stuff and we've even attended like TalkTO like I've been to City of Toronto meetings

and I've touched base with Chris Morisie and is it Brad Bradford and I've kind of you name

the outreach? uh They kind of know me. So our ward is, I don't know if you know who Mr. 21

to 1 is. That's Stephen Holliday. Stephen Doc Holliday. So he does not like me. No, he wouldn't.

I'm really sweet. And we've really experienced it. first I introduced myself. By the way,

there's illegal pumping going on right in front us. of my building. That's the worst part because

Steve's background, he knows that I has knowledge on a lot of stuff. So he was able to professionally

call them on things like dead trees and water going into the river. They were just doing

a lot. They were breaking a lot of environmental law. Like I'm an environmental scientist by

trade. And I said, look, I'm really sorry. It's probably I'm probably the wrong guy. You

want his balcony facing this. But like you got you got like a bunch of guys pumping illegal

sediment into a manhole. And it may look like nothing to people, but I literally did this

for a living for eight years and you're in violation. So what are you gonna do about it? Yeah, because

our building, they've received more backdated permits. And I don't mean by a week or two.

I mean, like they got them. In February, they got backdated permits back to November. We

could do an entire store. I'm come to our building. We'll give you tours. We could do it. story

on our building and I'm not going to do that today. Today's an AGI talk. There's a lot of

corruption. Today's tenant union talk. We did hear some horror stories in there, right? And

I think like as horrible as they all are, everyone was kind of nodding like they had that shared

experience on some level. So I think, yeah, it's so nice to see folks that have very similar

stories to and well photographed and well videoed and well emailed and well cataloged. A lot

of people are. Yeah, we've been to court and we've been to LTV hearings and been to CMHs

and we've done, we've far along in our fight. That's why this is important because if we're

going to have laws changed, legislation changed, like this is again, the power of these people

is what's going to force the politicians to start changing things because when their voters

are angry at them, they're going to have to change their ways. So I'm hoping we can say

this. Look out Mr. Landlord, we're coming for you. I could show you a Section 37 of the

Planning Act legal contract I have with me today that they've completely violated and they

just completely turn a blind eye to. I have a legal contract in my bag right now where

the developer and the city came to a legal binding agreement that they would not AGI legacy

tenants. in my building as per agreement to build to develop another building on our property.

Okay. And they just went ahead and AGI'd us five straight years anyways and the city is

just basically doing this. La la la la la la. And the LTB saying well this is Ontario jurisdiction

that document is city. They're just saying it oh we're the province. don't. We supersede

the city. I'm like but The city negotiated for 11 years to get this and the developer and

the planning and the planning department all signed off on this and agreed that legacy tenants

as per this date, August 25th, 2022. Don't quote me exactly, but anyways, you get the idea.

Anybody living in the building as per this date will not get AGI. They did do you dirty. That's

what I'm saying. And Mr. Holliday, stop returning my emails. No, like, I don't think you could

tell me a story about landlords that wouldn't surprise me, but when I hear you talk, uh I

think you're resource, my friend, you know? When this branch forms, there's some ad hoc

members. They're like those seniors you were talking about. They don't know where to start.

They don't know any of this legalese. And you're like gold. Right, sharing his knowledge. And

they try to tell me, and then they try to tell me, oh, no, that's just a draft. That's that's

not a legal contract. That was just a suggestion. And I'm like, it's got a seal from an engineer.

Looks really official. it's and not only that, what happens is then it gets read into the

civic, the city council. So then it's read into minutes and then it's passed into bylaw. So

like it's like all I can say is, trust me, like, trust me. I didn't read it on Wikipedia. I'm

an environmental scientist by trade. You know what I mean? I know what I'm talking about.

Yeah, no, it does not surprise me. know developers pretty much pay for those campaigns for politicians,

so they're in cahoots. Well, it blew my mind. This is off topic a little bit, but we didn't

realize this stuff actually happened in real life. We lived in this nice little building.

Before Carteria bought our building, the past owners... There was like 15 years of no new

tenants because no one left. Nobody left. People literally, and this sounds awful. There was

a waiting list to get in our building. And the only way there was a vacancy was somebody passed

away. that's what was sad about our community is that was a, moved. then an REIT bought our

building and now it's a revolving door. And that's the sad part. And then five consecutive

years of AGI's. And then so not to go put the training back on to Bruno's day, like we

just were so ecstatic to be a part of this. I'm hoping I've told Bruno that if there's

anything I can do to help out with what he's doing here, I have volunteered my time, I

have volunteered my services. I've also told him in a non-volunteer capacity. I'd be willing

to be part of any administration that he's putting together. I'm really hoping that what

he does here catches on, like Jerry said. The city really needs this. That was so much

fun to listen to. And honestly, feel like we could, we're going to have to bring them back

into the studio to talk more about this. We couldn't even include everything from that

conversation, but there's so much to unpack there. I think one of... One of the things

from that conversation that stuck with me the most was the theme of like, you know, we're

all bringing different skills to organizing, you know, everyone has their own skills and

abilities. And that's one of the things that like a group like the Toronto Tenant Union

can make such good use of is just the diversity of knowledge and skills from across the city,

from tenants all over the place, being put together for for a common fight. I think that's one

of the things that I'm most enthusiastic about seeing come from the launch of this group.

So obviously in launching any group like this and creating a new structure, they had to hold

elections. That was probably my least favorite part of the afternoon. I'm always open to talk

about policies and amendments. I think that's fun stuff, even if it did give me flashbacks.

But they had 10 positions up. for grabs, so to speak. There's two co-chairs. I won't

run through them all. We'll link some of the documents that they shared with us with you,

but 10 elections in total. you know, predictably, this was a creation. It was a scaling up of

York Southwest and Tenant Union and Climate Justice T.O. So, I mean, seven of them just

went acclaimed. nobody ran against them. I think folks were looking up there going, you've

been doing a good job so far. This is kind of your baby. And we're somewhat happy to

go along with this. um There were three positions that were contested that had actual elections

and open the mic to the floor. And we heard some speeches. And now I totally get, like

I'm going to preface this, but I totally get. the hesitation folks might have at the idea

of, you know, opening up the possibility of having someone who doesn't have experience

or perhaps has a completely different vision from what York Southwest Tenants was already

doing alongside Climate Justice Toronto. But it would be remiss of us not to mention that

near the end of the elections, uh one of the participants took to the mic to challenge

the chair and ask the question, out of the nine elections we've already had, how many of those

positions have gone to existing leadership? And they came back to say, well, nine out

of the nine. Nine out of the nine had either been already with those two organizations

that had created this thing. But, you know, The idea was to bring more people under the

umbrella. And I think the result of that last vote was a little bit of the crowd voicing

that same point. know, like, let's include some new faces as well. Let's actually make this

an opening up of a city-wide union, not just a scaling up of the existing... model and

leadership structure. um And so in the end, they decided who would lead their steering

committee. um But this was a moment, again, that had a lot of the elements or some of

the elements that we dislike about convention. Yeah, I think this comes from a place of

love, know, I think we've had, Jess and I have had a lot of conversations as to like, you

know, how to talk about this, because I'll speak for myself here. Like I believe very strongly

in this group of people, you know, I think the York Southwest Intent Union has proven themselves

to us, to the city, you know, they fought hard for our rights. And whenever opening a up from

something like that, you know, it's a huge challenge. But the reality is that to become truly the

Toronto Tenant Union, there's going to be a lot of relationship building that needs to

be done. You know, we know a lot of ends of the city are underrepresented, whether it's

Scarborough and Etobicoke are huge ones that come to mind, you know, as traditionally being

excluded by leftist organizing in general. I see a lot of groups that call themselves Toronto

anything in this city that's been something we've seen as well as working with like you

know other groups that already exist you know we talk a lot on the left about doubling up

of work you know and what is the most efficient way to use a resource are we you know so and

there are other groups out there and I'm confident that these folks, and we're already seeing

them work together with other groups, know, events being planned with Parkdale and with

230 Fightback and, you know, some of the observers. Moss Park. Yeah, Acorn was... The unhoused

groups, are you? No, no, there's many. It's just like, and we were all out back with them,

right? Hanging out in between speaking parts, but... Yeah, just, and I'm again, I'm fully

confident moving forward that these folks are going to achieve good things. I think I just

went into it doing what we do and having the conversations that we have, you know, and

being traumatized by partisan politics. I was hoping I that we wouldn't see things like

stacking the mic and more deeper discussions. And I'm hoping those will come because one

of the things that they did immediately. was slot everybody right into branches, right?

And so folks are already connected to so many other people now that they weren't before.

And the role of all those folks that were elected is to harness the Steves and Jerrys, right?

That skillset that's out there, that enthusiasm that's out there and work with them. And so

far they've been doing a great job at that, right? That's why they were able to get the

numbers that they got for this event. So. still fully confident, but again, we just, I couldn't

not say something um about that. But the best part of the event, think moving into, away

from the cafeteria and into the streets, right? We got to go rally outside of the Caseway building

at Dundas and Bloor. Residents there are fighting a particularly awful landlord. Yeah, this is

a massive building complex where we were outside of. For anyone who's ever been to Dundas West

station in Toronto or Bloor Go station in Toronto, it's the giant brick complex that

has like the Dollarama out front. And I just got to I think it was a really great move

on the part of the Toronto Ten Union to immediately mobilize us all. uh to fight for the rights

of tenants. And we heard some stories from some of the tenants there. We had a bit of a rally

outside and we're just gonna share some of the clips we got from that, some of the moments,

some of the chants, you know. And as you listen to these, you have to envision that there are

people holding, you know, paper mache cockroaches on sticks. We'll have some visuals up on our

social media and folks have already... posted it, but, everyone has a falafel in their hand.

Just a single falafel, not in a pita. And I'm sure you can hear it on the audio, but

it was pouring rain at one point, which was uh not great timing on Toronto weather. But

when has Toronto weather ever had good timing for us? It's an uphill fight for tenants all

the way.

Get

Get a real job! Alright, when I say landlord, landlord, you say get a real job. Landlord,

landlord, get a real job! Landlord, landlord, get a real job! Landlord, landlord, get a real

job! What should they get? Real job! Do they have one? No! What do they do? They get the

Leech! And also it's very important that we all come together and we are treated with

respect, fairness, and that our voices are being heard.

to do is pay attention to your neighbors on your floors. Just pay attention. Reach out.

If it's a senior, if it's someone with disabilities, reach out.

You have a neighbor that has difficulty speaking the language. They are usually treated a little

different and I don't like that. So offer to be the voice for them. It is, I think

what I'm going to suggest is that if one person per floor one could take a couple of hours

a month just to check in with your neighbors on that floor two hours a month and find

out exactly what is happening. we could have a better way of communicating faster with

the rest of the association. Anyways, just one more thing. much. But we can do a lot

if we come together and we support each other.

Now, after, as the event was winding down, we did get the chance to talk to one of the

tenants from this building a bit more in depth of their struggle. Yeah. Bridget was more

than happy to share probably just a glimpse of how awful those landlords have been, how

they have reacted to tenants organizing and what she thinks that the formation of the

Toronto Tenant Union is going to bring to that fight. Let's listen to Bridget. Okay, so following

the historical. creation of the Toronto Tenants Union, the first act of business was to march

over to the building that we're at now called the Crossways and show support for the tenants

here. You're one of those tenants. Why are we here to support you? What's the battle that's

going on with your landlord? Well, first and foremost, um we had attempted with Carmen's

help to form our own little union and we did deliver, you know, like our terms that we'd

appreciate them to have a more methodical oh pest control plan than the whack-a-mole method

they currently have. uh Pest control comes every week and just hits the active infestations.

When the pest vendor himself has said, no, you need to spray the hallways, and we know of

other buildings who have gone floor by floor to like flush them out of the bones of buildings.

We did hand that to them face to face October 17th of last year. we are, you know, they-

My math is really bad. I read six messages. Now, and they can't even respond in five to

seven business days, let alone weeks, let alone the same year. So we're really getting fed

up, you know, between... It's almost like a bait and switch. You come in, when you tour,

they're all friendly and kind. seem they're really about the human connection. And as soon

as you paid that last month and you sign the lease, you're a number of them. This is in

an environment where Doug Ford passed legislation where you miss your rent for a day and they

can try to file for eviction. I mean, there's timelines for you and then there's timelines

for landlords. So what do you hope that the city gains? from something like the Toronto

Tenants Union that would, you know, essentially help support the efforts that are already going

on. I hope that it inspires people to be, you know, unafraid, more brave. I'm sure, you know,

there were attempts to form a union in this building quite some time ago and in 2018, like

I think there was a news article about it where they just tried to meet in the mall, public

open property and management called the cops on them. They weren't even protesting, they

were just trying to have a meeting. So I hope this inspires inspires other people in our

building, in buildings across the city that now that know the unions have amalgamated

to one big beast, we will have that ability to... these giant corporations and that

they just sign up and join us. What already has come from, you know, the work of Climate

Justice T.O. and York Southwest Intentions that have facilitated the efforts here? Oh, well,

Carmen has led the way and just kind of helped us form our structure, how we should be doing

things, and... We were having that demand was a big first step, know, us finding our

voice to just nail it down what our issues are in order of urgency. If you had a message

for the Toronto Tenants Union that's just formed, what would you say to them? To the union?

Our union? that just signed up. They're super excited. Well, thank you so much. um And I'm

happy that people are taking the lead and we're being the change we want to see. We're making

the demands that no one else is making for us. I do have one question about your landlord

and how maybe the relationship or their attitude, did it shift after the formation of a Were

there hostilities at first? What's the story there? Oh, absolutely. um Constantly accosted

by security even though tenant union and their act their activities completely legal and you

know We're being extremely respectful to our fellow neighbors. If nobody wants to participate

we make a note. That's fine We don't bother them again. We don't want anyone to be uncomfortable.

We're still gonna fight for you and it's when we made that handoff we very much got a Not

veiled at all threat of we're aware who each and every single one of you are So that's who

we're dealing with the intimidation, the constant just trying to scare us down. using the

same tired tactics that they've used against an individual trying to use it against a collection

of tenants is quite laughable. I'm hoping this gathering is, you think this is a push on your

landlords? Do think you'll get a response? Oh, absolutely, because it's clear they don't care

about, you know, us faceless, nobody's just paying our rent timely every month. But they

will care once the politicians and the news outlets that came out today start to push

this and we get invited to speak in larger forums if they continue to want to play this

game. What happens if they don't listen? What's your next step? I think we just call in even

more oversight, more connections that we know, because they can't keep doing this. They can't

keep raising the rent and doing nothing. They continually invent illegal charges, like I

said, the bulbs, for the fuses, that's covered under just the normal wear and tear. And meanwhile,

they recently tried to give a tenant a $1,000 bill for their smoke detector going off. like

to blame the city's finance, the Toronto Fire Department, shout out to Captain Mongo and

the boys at the 341, when everybody knows that bill goes to landlords like this to make

sure that their systems are working and if these are continually going off because it's

faulty, the landlord's got to fix it. That's their bill to pay. They do not want to incur

one penny of cost of doing business. know, the AGI's are all about recouping the cost,

even though their capital investment increase in value. I mean, they continue to claw back

amenities in our building as well. uh Like Carmen mentioned and like it was all over the news,

our transformer blew two times in one summer that left everyone without power. So our all

included utilities for a week, no rent abatement as well as shutting down our pool for months,

no rent abatement. uh The saunas have been closed apparently according to some of the

older tenants were like more than a decade or so. There was a gin. still actually advertised

when we came to view it and I asked, where'd the gym go? It's gone because of COVID. Why?

When's it coming back? COVID. Knock on at the end of the listing of the advertising. But,

know, there was a games room, there were saunas, were like... There's shrink-flation even when

it comes to the amenities at your apartment building. yeah, the amount of profits they're

already turning, that's maddening. That is absolutely maddening. What's the vibe now? Now that you're

mingling amongst your fellow residents. I think people are feeling empowered You know like

like I said we were very happy and we're very kind You know giving them the benefit of doubt

when we first got here and then when we got the first break in And they changed our locks

and then we got the second break in like with a key And we were told they were cycle locks.

That's when I'd about okay It's clear you really don't There's no respect for me on

you rent so you're going to get our cold business. We're documenting everything, we're reporting

everything and I hope that's what the other tenants and everyone else who signed up to

this union feel. They feel empowered because they do have rights despite them trying to

intimidate you that you don't. Amazing, well best of luck to you and your fellow residents.

answer all your questions. You did, you did. It was amazing. you. Before we left the event

we were able to also catch two of the new steering committee members. Not ironically, each of

them were from one of the founding organizations we've been talking so highly of and both of

them former guests of Blueprints. So maybe that's why they agreed to talk to us. No, no, but

Aniket was up first. He had just been elected as a regional rep. We spoke before, right

on like kind of the precipice, I think, of Climate Justice Toronto making this transition from

a climate justice organization to something, you were a bit of a transition, but I felt

like it was like a staffing warehouse for tenant unions. You had that goal that building class

consciousness was the key to fighting for climate justice, but you were just going to go at it.

So right, had on the precipice of shifting, you guys said you're going to focus on class

consciousness, I said all that. So how do you feel now that climate justice Toronto has dissolved

and... is something wholly different but a key part of this Toronto Tenants Union. What's

it feel like? Yeah, I mean I think there's two things to it you know like on one hand

of course CJTO is such a big part of my life and other people's lives but you know we

did vote to do this you know and I think that it reflects where we were going and I think

it reflects what we need right now. I mean we had I think over 400 people sign up to

join and I think final numbers were between two and three hundred people that came out.

today and I think it shows a real need in the city of where we need to go as the left on

the movement to get people to come out and talk to us because I think one of the issues that

we were honest with ourselves about is that we can't stay in our bubble. We need to meet

people where they're at. We need to meet people who are facing issues of rent, housing issues,

or pests, or lack of maintenance and you know as tenants, as renters, are not being treated

fairly by their landlords and I think because that's such an acute issue today in Toronto,

there's a great opportunity for us to bring that climate angle, whether it's on heat or

lack of heat, whether it's on flooding or other climate issues, and organize people on

those, but not only those, but more than that, on issues like rent, which they feel so acutely

in Toronto. I think some people from the outside might look at it as an abandonment of the climate

justice fight, but I mean, you articulated that so Oh well, those are the same fights

you were born in. Yay. Those are the same fights you're doing now, but it's where you're

meeting people. Why did you choose, not you singularly, but as a collective, tenant organizing?

There should have been other ways, surely there could have been other ways to reach more people

or appeal to a broader spectrum, um but you went the tenant union way. Why? You know,

I'd say we actually did have the same conversation a couple years ago, and we were thinking, okay,

maybe maybe housing, maybe labor, maybe transit. And I'd say it's a mix of relationships we

had and also just the political moment. You know, we endorsed Chiara Parivari for city

council. Then we went on to support the rent strikes. We defended for help defend the fictions.

Then our own folks started launching tenant organizing campaigns. And, you know, I think

that caught on more than the other things because it speaks to just how big an issue housing

is in the city right now that people were like, you know, I remember this moment in the

rent strike where I was knocking on doors, know, are you going to pledge to withhold your rent,

so on and so forth. And someone didn't open their door and I'm walking down the hall and

someone opens their door and chases after me. And I'm like, oh my God, they're going to

call the cops or something. And she's like, are you the rent strike people? I was like,

yeah, like I'm helping with the tenant union. She's like, I want to join the rent strike,

like sign me up. And I was like, I think that really speaks to like what people really feel

in this city right now that there's a problem. but there's also a chance for hope by fighting

together. uh on tenant organizing, would you say that you were seeing tangible results,

whereas after decades of environmental activism, we heard a speaker at the convention say,

and we had nothing really to show for it, nothing had really changed. Can you speak to that a

little bit? Yeah, definitely. I I remember the 2019 climate strike, which I was not around

in CJ2 at that time, but people before me helped organize, and it was one of the biggest demonstrations

in the city. you know. You know, I think everyone today will say, compared to 10 years ago, rent

is higher, affordability is worse, have fewer protections and the climate crisis is getting

worse. And I think it speaks to both, you know, we raised a lot of awareness, but we didn't

build power strategically enough. And I think that is unfortunately a real loss we have

to sit with. But I think that many people see that now and I think that speaks to, you know,

people getting involved, either it's in their unions or in different organizations. Of course,

the election of Abbie Lewis, like a left populist candidate, and of course in the Toronto Tenant

Union. I think people are sitting with those losses and thinking, no, there is something

we can do, it's done before. We can go out, we can meet people who they're at, and we can

organize the unorganized. A question about the beginning. So climate justice, T.O., transitioning,

it's all new beginnings, new growing pains. We saw a little bit at any convention, you'll

see it, but this was a founding convention. Do you want to comment on what it's like now

having to do this all over again. like you wander into something new, figure out what it's going

to look like. And you know, you're a branch chair. Yeah, branch rep, yeah. Thank you. A

branch rep now for downtown. A lot of work to do there. How's that going to look? Look, I

mean, I think it's, I had a conversation with another member of another org who walked in

and I we were talking about, there are some kerfuffles today, but at the end of the day,

we all want the same things. where we're at. There might be little differences in strategy

and vision, but I think we're aware of how little we have on the left and how few people

we have. And I think the important thing for us to remember and to tell each other is we

can have our disagreements, but at the end of the day, we agree on so much more and we can

work from that agreement. And we're going to have some difficulties, some growing pains,

some disagreements along the way, but there's so much we agree with and so much we can work

together on. Do you have any final thoughts on, you you've planned this for, I don't know,

how long have you been planning this event today? I think the convention committee started in

January, but both orgs voted to start this in September. Okay, wow. So tomorrow might

feel a little bit like a vacation, right? Because you've built up, built up to this. How are

you feeling now that you've seen it all pulled off and you've seen everybody else's reaction

to it and you were elected? I mean, it's incredibly exciting, you know. I think that we always

want all these people to come together and it's so great to see 200, 300 people not only

like sign something or, you know, come out to demonstration, but come out to a convention,

which is no small commitment. And beyond that, I think it speaks to the organizing that's

been done that we had met. Any tenants who I don't think saw themselves as political people

10 years ago who were at this and participating and voting and speaking, I wish there were

more people who were outside of that activist bubble. I do think there was a lot of people

like myself who were in that kind of activist world already. And I think that just speaks

to the work we still have to do. But I think it's an excellent start and I think there's

so much excitement for where we're going to go. I thought it was refreshing when most

people didn't know what call to question was, you know, I was like, oh, this is so nice,

but you know, we did have to deal with a bit of Robert's rules. I want to ask you a question,

one, about your role um as a downtown rep and bringing other existing tenant unions into

the fold. There's some great organizations already down there, like Parkville uh organizing is

just one example. What can you do to... amalgamate everybody in some way. I mean, look, I think

it's just working from what we have in common and seeing what people are comfortable with.

know, CJTO and YSW Tenant Union, decided to merge. We took the time to reach out to different

orgs. Some people decided, you know, maybe not yet, maybe a year or two down the road, that's

fine. I think as long as we can work together on issues we face in common and as a union

have not be pulled in 10 different ways, but respect, hey, we're doing this in our org,

you guys are doing that. and Yorick, let's do what we can together and go from there.

I think one thing I also want to say, especially in this new role as downtown rep, I think it'll

be so important to really send people out to the suburbs and support people in the suburbs.

I think today was a disproportionately downtown event. most populated uh branch meeting. And

you know, these are ridings which swing NDP sometimes. They have that kind of base that's

sympathetic to left-wing candidates, doing politics, but the suburbs is not that. Many people

don't see themselves as anywhere near this world of the suburbs. And I think it'll be, yeah,

there's a lot of fights we have to take up in the downtown and, you know, join hands together,

but I think it'll be really important for us to also think about how do we support our

very studious organizers of the suburbs. Yeah, you've got your share of floor captains, right?

You're kind of hogging them. You're going to have to share some of these organizers with

the rest and get some growth. I'm excited to see how many more branches shape out and then

what this goes, maybe we can hit up a branch meeting once and see what those are like. But

we appreciate you taking the time and inviting us to this. And yeah, this has been historic,

I think. And I'm glad that you guys have come to cover it. That conversation really ties

together that long journey that we've been covering of the climate justice CEOs transition

to this. And we're so excited now for this new chapter that they're on. And we really wish

them the best of luck. To cap off the evening, got to talk to one of my personal favorite

guests we've ever had on this show. Bruno, who is now newly elected co-chair of the Toronto

Tenant Union, who has been working behind the scenes for the past few months to put this

whole event together. And we know how stressful something like that can be. So now we're at

the end of the day, end of the road, more. I'm eating some, what were they? Dumplings?

Like fried dumplings? The balls? Yeah. Those are falafels. No, they had falafels, but I

was also eating those fried. I'm like, how do you not know what a falafel is? No, I know

what a falafel, I'm Lebanese. I know, I didn't want to say that. I was like, can I say that?

Am I allowed to say that? So we catch up with Bruno. hands full of food before before they

pack up for the day to see what his feelings are about how the day went. Let's listen to

Bruno. Bruno, you pulled it off, buddy. We did it, we did it. Very excited, very, very

happy. uh I'm like, yeah, I'm super excited. Like, I just feel the energy coming out of

it and it's a bit of weight on my shoulders, but it's okay, it's okay. It is or was? No,

it is. Now, feel like, Now, get your co-chair. Yes, we're co-chairing the whole city and it's

like, but anyways, I'm excited, yeah. You can handle it. You've got a great co-chair to work

with. Fantastic, yeah, my neighbor. People you've worked with before. Yeah. It's these falafels.

Yeah, I know. They're so good, eh? My hands full of them. They're definitely feeding us

all day. We've been fed and we've been treated great. We've enjoyed ourselves. Is it everything

you expected? Yes, I think it was more than I expected. I think this always, to me, I'm

really, I always worry that is there people going to show up? You know, there's a question

when you're organizing something. So it's really like, yeah, in that sense, it it was it was

surpass my expectations. I would, I mean, even the debates that we had, I thought were

great. Obviously, we could have them for longer. It's not always the case. Yeah, but it was

just very refreshing to me just to have those discussions, have those debates, get people

voting on it and just having so many more people that now own the organization too,

right? That they they feel part of something bigger. Like I've just been talking to people

from all over the city since we wrapped up that they're saying, hey, okay, when are we

doing one meeting in North York? and I want to eat Scarborough. There's so much hunger

for it. That's exactly what I wanted. We thought we'd interviewed all, not all the tenant organizing

that's happening, but we came across so many more, so many more horror stories of awful

landlords, but at the same time they all had origin stories as well. A lot of them involved

York Southwest and Tenant Union, uh now known as the Toronto Tenant Union. So is anything

going to fundamentally change about how you do what you do, just in larger numbers? I

hope it doesn't. because I just, I don't think we have a secret sauce, but I think we have

a system that has worked to put landmarks on notice, to organize people. And especially

with it, to organize people that are not used to getting organized. So I think that's something

that to me is very important. We have a huge community of organizers who are just naturally

added. uh yeah, just reaching out to people who are not necessarily the usual suspects.

I think we've done that very well, and I just hope that now it's gonna be a bigger scale,

yeah. looks like we have a little bit of work to do in the East End, right? When we had everyone

who's from Scarborough, there were people there, they were enthusiastic, but clearly uh the

concentration is in the core. What are you gonna do to get folks of Scarborough a little bit

more organized or into the fold? Definitely, so reach out to them. think... going to buildings.

have identified already quite a few buildings. was such shit transit. Yeah, exactly. So first

fight for better transit. No, but we already have identified buildings that we think could

be good just because of the issues they're going through. Especially above-gallon rent increases

is like this horrible thing. is actually the one positive benefit is that you need to fight

it collectively. any building that is going, you have to. Yeah. There is no other option.

Any building that's going through that, it's really prone for organizing. the easiest signaling

to get a building organized. So that's what we're gonna do, go see and I also think

after all of this we'll be getting a lot more attention from the rest of the city so I'm

really hoping that folks in Scarborough are gonna come out and say hey. We didn't know

about this. Nobody told us. I was like, sorry, we tried, but come in, welcome. That's half

the battle when you throw these events, right? They're good, they're well planned, well intentioned,

needed, but how do you get everybody to hear about it when the algorithm hates us and word

of mouth isn't what it used to be? people were definitely showing up today and they really

wanted to talk. Like, leftists always want to talk, but it was across the spectrum a little

bit, but you get a room of us and microphones and it'll never stop. uh How do you feel about

the political discussions that kind of happened on the floor today? I think they were amazing.

That was my other doubt is, are people gonna really like wanna have amendments? was like,

people are like, yeah, some people, but I was expecting way less and I just thought that

was, to me that was very healthy as a start. Like, okay, actually I want this amendment

because I wanna be part of this. And I really, really, yeah, appreciated that. eh Those are

difficult discussions. Like I actually also think that we may not resolve them with a vote

either way. You know, we're going to have to work through it. My hope is that one, people

stick around, right? Even when you might not always get the way you want. think in organizing

space it's really important to recognize that, to stick around, to fight for the way you want

it. You know, it's important. And then the other thing is that we got... We've got so many people

to organize across the city. Like the union density of the tenant movement, it's minimal.

It's there somewhat, but it's minimal. So I think we got something for everybody, basically.

There's so much to go get that I'm not worried that people are just going to tune out. No,

I don't think there's any tuning this out. Let's we get to the point where, you know, every

time they think about issuing an AGI, they're like, oh, you know, every time we do that,

that really, I mean, you got a fucking union out of it. And then we got to deal with them.

And maybe there's another way. nickel and dime them to death I don't know but make them think

twice about it but what's your first order of business Mr. co-chair finances yeah nothing

the first order of business definitely gonna be like okay over almost 500 people registered

to this how do we plug them in, whether they were able to make it or not, but they definitely

want to be part. So we got that. That's like you got a lot of onboarding to do my onboarding,

but usually those 500 people represent another 100 each because they often live in these big

buildings. And so that already kind of gives us that's where we go. That's it. Yeah. I can't

wait to see how many floor captains come out of this and amazing this building. Yeah. Like

they have so the crossway, the tenants were really organized at the beginning. So yeah,

We didn't do before and which is their idea. Fantastic. Yeah, they said that you guys really

helped. So yeah, big things to come. We'll have to pull you into the studio maybe six months

from now and see how the growing pains are going. There's going to be them, but it was a respectful

dialogue that happened. And yeah, I think you should be very proud of what you and your comrades

have done here today. Thank you. And really thank you to both of you to, you know, being

part of this political project in many ways, you know, I think. It's just so important

we can rely on mainstream media. We all know the challenges. And to me, it's just so good

to have folks like you covering us and many other movements, right? It's just, you know,

a space where we can really just say what we think without the one minute. Is this going

to sound crazy to these people, you know? We never added the crazy. Exactly. Thank you,

Bruno. Best of luck. No, thank you so much. I love Bruno's the... perfect person to end

off with. We still want to talk about how we all felt about the event as well. And I think

just like moving forward perhaps a bit of a wish list for what we hope to get out. mean,

Stephen Jerry used the example of some of the bylaws that have been passed in Hamilton, but

I'm thinking bigger than that. As good as those anti-renovation. bylaws are and progress to

be made in electoral politics. I think I'm more hopeful about the magnitude and the

political power that Ricardo referred to. I'm extremely hopeful. think now whenever

a group of people in Toronto, in any building, anywhere in the city, have questions as to

how do we get this started, they're going to have someone to turn to. There's not nearly

enough legal representation for tenants as well in the city. We heard firsthand how a

lot of the resources, even the landlord and tenant board puts out for how to get representation

lead nowhere. Well, when people have questions as to what are their rights, what can we do?

How do we fight? Who do I talk to? They're going to have somewhere to turn to, you know? And

Landlords are going to have to think twice when fighting to take away our rights because

we're going be more organized than ever to fight back. We're to be able to mobilize en masse.

And I just, I think it's, it's really exciting now to see this. really hope. I think, and

I have reason to be hopeful having seen how they, at the end, the end of the day, you

know, they broke off into different groups representing the different areas of the city. It's, I'm

very hopeful. And also based off of what they, the, what we were told. by the various leaders

of the Toronto tenant union that there will be efforts to organize in the neighborhoods

where tenant organizing maybe hasn't been a part of their reality. I think that's just

so important. I want to take a second though to talk about a little bit of the elephant

in the room. And it was, you know, for us, Santiago and I, we've been interviewed a lot of tenant

unions. I think we were expecting to kind of see them all there. ah They weren't, you know,

some of the bigger names that folks will recognize, at least from our show, know, 230 Fightback,

Parkdale weren't noticeably there. perhaps we're observers, but I think as we digested

it and thought about our perspective on organizing and how we recognize it's a diversity of tactics

and we're, we don't like labels, but both of us are bit anarchists. And so I think the question

is, do, like, does it need to be one union? you know, under one umbrella, one structure.

And I think the answer is no. Aniket talked about maybe down the road, you know, you would

have some more larger tenant unions signing on to this, you know, as well as continually

signing on other buildings and ad hoc members. But the reality is perhaps that these groups

can work alongside together and team up when important. and are allowed to operate with

perhaps some ideological differences if that's, you know, what they need to do. Yeah. I mean,

we don't see uh a single union representing all workplaces across Canada. It would be

by the same sense, it makes sense to have different tenant groups with different goals and different

focuses and different ideologies. I mean, this is the diversity of tactics that is something

we always talk about in this show. You know, this is the fight. This is how we do the fight.

You know, because at any moment in time, know, oh one convention goes wrong, we get too heated

about a fight, half the members quit, you know. I've seen it happen. We've all seen it happen.

You know, we fight, we disagree. it's important not to put all our hopes into any one organization,

but to have the resilience that only comes from having. multiple organizations doing the

work. I think, yeah, the unique thing too about tenant organizing is your opponent is so

clear. There's not a whole lot of discussion on who should we be pointing our energies

towards, right? And it allows that common ground, right, where other differences can exist.

When you organize a building, it's like a workplace. You don't get to handpick the political ideologies

of everyone from the get-go. You need as many people on board as possible. But having a

common, clear enemy, because you have shared experiences with said enemy, not just imagined.

You didn't read it in a book. It's their lives. And I think that's what makes me so hopeful

about tenant organizing in this city and across Canada. because Vancouver has a giant tenants

union as well that incorporates branches across the city. They're very tenant rich. And so

we just imagine should they all get their shit together and all be working on some level

with one another, if they choose to point that energy all at the same time in the same direction

for the same end, can you imagine what you could accomplish? Right. And that gets you all tingly.

I think one of the things that's so cool also about this that, you know, we haven't touched

on. We're talking about the concept of tenant union as if that's a something that exists

in any legal framework. You know, there's no such thing as a tenant union in any Canadian

laws. know, unions and workplaces have certain rights and structures. And part of being

recognized legally has been concessions, legal concessions. where unions are sometimes scared

and hesitant to move forward due to those legal constraints. They're not being any systemic

as tenant union. It's both a terrifying thing because anything you do, you're making up as

you go along, there's no legal protections for you. But also there's not those limitations

that come with that, you know. It can be whatever you want it to be. It can be whatever you want

it to be. So I'm really excited. I'm just excited to see tenant organizing continue to grow in

Toronto. I think it's such an important front um in the battle that really extends far beyond

simply tenants. This is the battle against capitalism, the battle against this colonialist society

we live in. There was no landlords before colonialism. So ah I'm hopeful. I can't wait to see what

comes next. Why don't we end this with a little bit more audio from angry tenants, angry

but organized tenants.

Enjoy!

That is a wrap on another episode of Blueprints of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. Also,

a very big thank you to the producer of our show, Santiago Halu-Quintero. Blueprints of

Disruption is an independent production operated cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter

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