World-famous photographer Pierino Di Tonno, who's fighting eviction from his apartment in Little Italy, was in front of the rental board Tuesday to make his case.
Di Tonno is 82-years-old and suffers from cancer. He has lived in the same apartment for nearly 40 years and claims his landlords are trying to take advantage of him. The building’s owners want to renovate from top to bottom.
“What happened today is what happens a thousand times a year at the rental board, the Regie du logement. People are being evicted for subdivision or to make bigger apartments,” said Martin Blanchard of the Petite Patrie Housing Committee.
The tenant and the landlord argued over the legality of the eviction notice, but housing activists say the real problem is how easy it is to evict tenants on the basis of doing renovations.
”This is purely unacceptable. There's no defence of the rights of the tenant to stay in their own apartment. Nobody looks at the plans of the owner,” Blanchard said.
Representatives of the landlord say the building is falling apart and needs immediate work.
“It would be nice to have apartments that are reasonable. But we're not even allowed to do that. We're being blasted for doing something amazing,” said Cecilia Zaurrini.
They also deny forcing Di Tonno's hand and claim they've been painted in a negative way from the start. They say they are doing everything they can.
“I have a lot of sympathy for him and we wanted to talk to help him, to actually house him, to move him and bring him back. But it's impossible to do because he has a lawyer and the press is against us,” Zaurrini said.
For Di Tonno though, it's all about remaining in the place he called home most of his life.
“Maybe I'll live in the streets of Montreal like a [homeless person],” he said.
The rental board is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks.
