Mackay tenants hit city hall

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by Craig Segal

Calling themselves Friends of Mackay, four tenants and two activists angrily demanded help from their city councillor, Gerry Weiner, at city council last Monday night over a mass eviction near Concordia. The group represents 30 mostly elderly tenants evicted from 1193 Mackay since Les Cours de Roi Investment bought the place last March. Nine months later the company's lawyer issued tenants a notice saying they intend to demolish the building.

The confrontation followed a bizarre incident earlier in the day when Leslie Bencze, 62--who was secretly living in the now boarded-up building--was removed by ambulance technicians. "I think the eviction was wrong and illegal," says Evelyn Miller, a CLSC social worker who worked with 78-year-old tenant, Basil Nelson, who died shortly after the building was sold. Miller doesn't blame Nelson's death on the new landlords, but she admits he had no electricity and was living in squalor.

Also, the owner of a pizzeria in the building complains the new landlord has been using pressure tactics to force him out. "Sometimes they close the water down," says José Chowdhury, who is planning to take his fight to court. "For four months water was leaking into my equipment and my floor. They sabotaged me. They only offered me $2,500 to move. You can't even move one oven for that much."

For his part Gerry Weiner told the Mirror he will "make sure no one comes in to demolish the building."