BRITISH COLUMBIA -

Tenants set to fight rent hike

_ Tenants of three Zen and Aquilini build-
Ings have targetted Vancouver’s most
notorious slumlord for rent gouging, one of
Several practices the city’s tenant activists
Say are on the rise following the complete
abolition of the Rentalsman’s office.

More than 50 of the some 600 tenants in
the buildings located in the Mount Pleasant
area jammed a meeting sponsored by tht
Tenants’ Rights Action Centre (TRAC) and
the buildings’ tenants committees Oct. 22 to
Plan an organized response to rent hikes
Tanging from 35 to 50 per cent.

The case of the Zen and Aquilini tenants
Underscores the point TRAC has been mak-
Ing since the Social Credit government
introduced its new Residential Tenancy Act
and abolished the Rentalsman’s office and
Tent controls: soaring rents will gouge the
Poorest of the province’s tenants.

“Our case load is way up — and I'd
€stimate about 50 per cent of the calls we
Teceive are from those on welfare,” said
TRAC co-ordinator David Lane.

In addition to astronomical rent hikes,
Lane said the biggest problem tenants face
1s the refusal of landlords to refund security
deposits. Such cases were handled for a
Small fee by the Rentalsman’s office, since
Teplaced by the Residential Tenancy
Branch,

“The new branch has no information on
Security deposits. The tenant is referred to
small claims court. The landlords are mak-
ing a habit of not returning deposits, know-
ing full well that in a court case, they’ll walk
away with most of the money,” said Lane.

A $30 fee charged by the branch for all
non-monetary disputes, including repairs,
keeps most tenants away from the few
remaining avenues of redress, Lane said.

The Rentalsman’s office had a staff of 35
full-time officers, 140 clerical, and 15 full-
time information officers, with offices in six
Major B.C. centres. The branch, in contrast,
employs on a contractual basis only eight,
government-appointed “arbitrators,” 45
full-time staff and eight information staff,
TRAC points out in its booklet, Tenant

Survival Guide. :

_ ‘We see landlords simply taking the law
into their own hands, with rent hikes and

DAVID LANE. ..tenant activist predicts
new militancy.

illegal evictions, while they ignore the laws
that do exist,” said Lane.

The Rentalsman’s office, officially closed
in October, ceased handling new cases back
in June. By August, Lane reported, the
branch was handling only one-quarter of
the caseload handled by the Rentalsman.

The result has been an increased caseload

for TRAC, the active arm of the B.C.
Tenants Rights Coalition. The Centre,
which recently received extra funding from
the city of Vancouver, also engages in an
ongoing public education campaign and
other activities. _

‘Whenever we hear of something going
on, we get out and leaflet the building
involved. We could certainly use more
volunteers,” Lane stressed.

And the centre helps organize meetings,
such as the Oct. 22 one in which angry
tenants resolved to demand a rent hike roll-
back and a meeting with their landlords.

Zen and Aquilini refused, but the tenants
were to meet Monday with the general
property manager. They’ve vowed that if
their demands aren’t met, they’ll consider
picketing their buildings to discourage
prospective new tenants, mount a picket at
Zen and Aquilini’s head office and, if all else
fails, engage in a rent strike when the new
rents are to come in effect Jan. 1.

Lane said the absence of the Rentals-
man’s office and rent controls make such
occurrences inevitable.

“Tf the Zen and Aquilini tenants win their
case, it’s sure to signal a return to the mil-
itant tenant tactics of the early 70s,” he
predicted.

‘Target Socreds,’ CP
_urges in Nov. 8 vote

The B.C. Communist Party’s provincial
executive announced Oct. 25 that it would

not be fielding candidates in the Nov. 8.

provincial byelections by Vancouver East
and Okanagan North but urged voters to
“demonstrate their opposition to the right-
wing policies of the Social Credit govern-
ment. :

“*A defeat for the Socreds in one or both
ridings would send a strong message to Vic-
toria of popular opposition to the ultra-
right program of the Socreds which has
brought B.C. massive unemployment, a

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§ PACIFIC TRIBUNE, 268 fe eS A SO EE DD

t, information on the peace
t and liberated

pon on to a friend and

stagnant economy, lower living standards,
and attacks on social services, labor and
human rights,” provincial leader Maurice
Rush said in a statement.

He emphasized “new policies are needed

which will provide jobs, get the economy -

going, raise living standards and restore.
social service cutbacks, labor and human
rights. The Communist Party will press the
NDP to takea strong :

stand in support of #@
such new policies
and to join in united
action to defeat the
Socred-Fraser Insti-
tute right wing offen-
sive,”

The byelections
were prompted by
the death of sitting
Socred MLA for
Okanagan North,
Don Campbell, and

MAURICE RUSH

‘by the resignation of former NDP leader

and Vancouver East MLA Dave Barrett.
Contesting the Vancouver East seat are
NDP member Bob Williams, the former

resources minister who held Vancouver ©

East until he stepped aside in 1975 to pro-
vide a seat for Dave Barrett after the NDP
leader’s defeat in Dewdney; Liberal leader
Art Lee; Socred Mario Caravetta; Green
Hans Grages and an independent: In Okan-
agan North, NDP candidate Lyle McWilli-
ams is up against Socred Harold Thorlakson
and Liberal Frank Cole.

“In the Vancouver Eat byelection the
NDPis seeking to fill the vacancy created by
the resignation of Dave Barrett and to
return the seat to the NDP candidate who
formerly held it,” Rush said.

“The issue of government is not at stake
in the byelections,” he emphasized. “If it
were the Communist Party would be field-
ing candidates to project the Communist
program for B.C. © they

“In the present political situation, a

. strong vote against the Socreds would blunt

the right wing offensive and mark a setback
for the Socreds who have led B.C. into the
present crisis. We call upon the voters in
Vancouver East and North Okanagan to
cast their ballots against the Socreds and
thereby demonstrate their demand for new
policies which put people’s needs first.”

EDUCATION

DAY OF CONCERN

DESC action
aimed at
education
cutbacks

A “day of concern” for education
in British Columbia was marked Oct.

- 23 and 24 as teachers, students and

school staff members rallied at cam-
puses and began handing out 80,000
leaflets and 40,000 buttons protesting
the Social Credit government’s chronic
underfunding of public and post-
secondary education.

The leaflets, with a tear-off section
to be signed and sent to local MLAs _
urging an end to Victoria’s escalating
round of cutbacks, and buttons with
the logo “Education: A chance for a
future” are distributed by the two-
year old Defend Educational Services
Coalition (DESC).

The coalition is a member of the
Solidarity Coalition and was formed
after the Socreds’ “restraint” program
began the massive slashing of educa-
tion financing in 1982.

It comprises the Association of
University and College Employess
(AUCE), the B.C. Teachers Federa-
tion (BCTF), the Canadian Federa-
tion of Students (CFS), the Canadian
Unon of Public Employees (CUPE),
the College/Institute Educators’
Association (CIEA), and the Van-
couver Municipal and Regional
Employees Union (VMREU).

~ In the Lower Mainland, students,
faculty and support staff marked the
day with meetings at Capilano, Doug-
las and Kwantlen Colleges and Lan-
gara Campus of Vancouver Commu-
nity College. In the Interior, a public

“meeting in Kelowna heard Larry

Kuehn, past president of the BCTF
call for an end to education cutbacks.

Spokesmen for local teacher asso-
ciations and other DESC organiza-
tion members appeared on open-line
radio shows. The Burnaby Teachers
Association urged the Burnaby School
Board in a brief to resist Victoria’s
cutbacks, while CUPE took out a
half-page advertisement in the Pro-
vince protesting the loss of teachers’
aides and and offering an information
booklet on the cutbacks.

At Langara, an_ all-candidates
meeting for Vancouver city council
and school board saw members of the
right-wing Civic Non-Partisan Asso-
ciation booed for their attempted
defence of Socred cutbacks.

The “concern for public educa-
tion” continues this week with an all-
candidates forum for school board
hopefuls at the Champlain Heights
Community Room at 6955 Frontenac
St. in Vancouver, at 7:30 p.m. It’s -
sponsored by DESC and the Killarney-
Champlain Citizens for Action
Association.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 31, 1984 e 3