After stumbling upon this article on June 18, 2024 (I was doing research for social housing health detriments for a research study), I realized that my housing provider, the Barrie Municipal Non-Profit Housing Corporation (BMNPHC) - also called 'Barrie Housing', is also “overcharging” their Rent-Geared-to-Income (RGI) tenant’s rent, deliberately. So this is stealing. When I use this language, though, people seem to get uncomfortable with it, despite it being the correct language to use.
You would think that when a County or City is accused of major crimes, they'd be doing everything they can - or at least something - to demonstrate the allegations aren't true, as soon as possible, rather than ignoring them and hoping they'll go away.
I have a half-hour recorded phone call between myself and the BMNPHC’s CEO admitting they “over-charged” me nearly $2,700, available on the homepage. They only gave this money back after nine months of asking for it, and not until I threatened to tell national news outlets. Then they returned it immediately.
I’ve been living in public housing since 2008 and I’ve never received a tenant ledger, so I actually have no idea if they've returned all the "over-charged" rent. I just found out what tenant ledgers are in the last week of July 2024. Since learning about them, I’ve also learned that no other RGI tenants in all of Simcoe County have ever received a tenant ledger since at least 2008 (the properties in the BMNPHC are constantly being swapped between the Simcoe County Housing Corporation (SCHC) and the BMNPHC).
When the Mayor of Barrie, Alex Nuttall was informed, his response was to participate in an interview with BarrieToday.com, and then he allowed a series of articles praising Barrie Housing to be published.
Here are all the places I’ve contacted for help so far:
HRTO File #1: 2024-57438
HRTO File #2: 2024-57443
On Aug. 19, 2024, the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA) told me they only investigate police officers.
On Aug. 19, 2024, I filed a complaint with Barrie Police; Reference #: 2024-94312.
On Aug. 20, 2024, the Ontario Ombudsman let me know that they do not have jurisdiction over the BMNPHC or the SCHC.
The Federal Housing Advocate told me they never received my complaint/application/request for help and that they won’t help either.
After speaking to the Ombudsman assigned to my file on Aug. 20th, I asked her if, based on her experience as an investigator, if the behaviour being demonstrated by the County and the City is suspicious or unusual because, “you'd assume they'd have done something by now before letting it get this far", and her response was, "you should definitely pursue them".
I also asked her what my next step is and she says now I need a lawyer. Unfortunately, Legal Aid doesn't consider this to be an emergency and the half-hour free legal advice I received from the Law Society Referral Service was, "I can serve your housing provider for $1,200". However, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) will assign me a lawyer eventually. I think it'll be after Aug. 29th, 2024, which is pretty soon, but I'll contact them today (Aug. 21st) and find out.
I let the HRTO know what the Ombudsman said.
I think the respondents have responded to the other forms I submitted, but their responses were all the same: they all deny everything and demand this be dismissed before it starts.
I don't think I've received a response to my Form 1 Application and I don't think it matters. The HRTO will schedule a hearing when they can.
Climate Change, Climate Protection & Supreme Courts
I recently joined a political Facebook group which is pretty active in discussions, so when I posted about MP Doug Shipley declining my request to authorize a petition to immediately order a transfer of the control, functions, and supervision of certain portions of the public administration of the Special Priority Policy to the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Act, the post received quite a few thoughtful comments, including this one:
“A panel of Strasbourg judges ruled in April that Switzerland had violated the human rights of older women through weak climate policies that leave them more vulnerable to heatwaves.
The KlimaSeniorinnen – or Swiss female climate elders – are a group of 2,400 women over the age of 65 who took the Swiss government to court for failing to do its fair share to stop the planet heating 1.5C (2.7F). After years of setbacks in regional and national courts, they escalated the case to Europe’s top human rights court and scored a partial victory.
Scientists have found that older women die at higher rates during heatwaves, which have grown hotter, longer and more common as people have pumped out pollutants that trap sunlight. A study from doctors and climate scientists found 60% of the heatwave deaths in Switzerland in summer 2022 were the result of climate change and that older women were hit hardest.
Ahead of the debate, the KlimaSeniorinnen and Greenpeace submitted a petition with 22,000 signatures urging politicians to recognize that human rights are the basis of democracy and should be independent of political majorities.” - Source.
In Canada, though, there appears to be no politicians available to authorize such a petition.
To learn more about some of my ideas regarding the Special Priority Policy, which include extending it to encompass employment and food in addition to housing, read the 'Breaking Chains of Oppression' PDF.
Interim Public Interest Remedy
In my HRTO’s Form 16: Request For Interim Remedy, I’ve requested an interim public interest remedy, which is that the respondents pay for me to be retained to rewrite many policies in the social services sector, as well as to pay for an experienced policy-writer to help me, full-time, since I’ve never been trained to write policies before and I want to ensure the new proposed policies are structured properly and are valid.
The City of Barrie told the HRTO in their Form 17 Response to Request For Interim Remedy that the HRTO doesn’t have the authority to grant me this remedy and Simcoe County accused me of trying to work for the government and told the HRTO that if I want to work for the government, then I can try to get hired the traditional way. I guess this means they're not going to claim I haven’t been trying to get hired. The BMNPHC did not respond to my Form 16.
When I asked the HRTO’s Registrar how long approximately it’ll take them to make a decision regarding my request for an interim remedy, I received an automated response saying they’re backlogged. According to Tribunal Watch Ontario, in May 2024, the HRTO’s current “unresolved caseload rose to 9,527, amounting to a three-year backlog, based on its record of closing approximately 3,000 applications a year.”
So I will continue advocating and pushing to get this case dealt with as soon as possible, because we cannot stand living like this anymore.
Leah
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