Tenants get the boot

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by CRAIG SEGAL

Thirty mostly elderly tenants of a downtown apartment building were evicted last month, apparently illegally.

"Jean-Michel Casimir and two other guys came to my door at 11 p.m. and told me to leave my apartment," says Leslie Bencze, a three-year tenant at 1195-1201 Mackay now living with a friend. "I picked up a few important papers and I packed them all in a small bag. Me against three young husky fellows? I didn't have much of a chance."

Casimir, the VP of Intercommercial Services Immobiliers who managed the sale of the building in March, refuses to respect the monthly lease Bencze had signed with the previous landlord. Before he left, Bencze's heat and hot water had been deactivated. Other ex-tenants tell similar stories. "It's an abuse of human rights," says John Griffiths, who lived in his apartment for 22 years before getting the boot. "I'm really panicking. They even locked the front door on me."

The owner of a small pizza restaurant in the building says Casimir asked him to leave too. He has hired a lawyer and refuses to leave. Another commercial tenant who sells science equipment plans to move.

"The landlord has not gotten permission from the Régie to kick out his tenants," says Yves St-Germain of the Régie du logement. "Even with a one-month lease he would not have been allowed to throw them out without permission from the court."

Casimir says that he did not throw tenants out of the building but acknowledges that only one residential tenant remains. "No people were put in the street. The city doesn't give permission to make people leave. Since we purchased the building we've advised the tenants that we [plan to] demolish the building."

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