Another Human Rights Application Filed Against Gateway
- Leah Dyck
- Apr 27
- 3 min read
As you also probably know, earlier this year I assisted a survivor of human trafficking in filing an HRTO Application against her housing provider, Gateway Co-operative Homes Inc., and the County of Simcoe. Last month, the HRTO wanted to dismiss her case because the respondents said her case had already been dealt with through the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). But the HRTO hasn't dismissed it yet and I don’t think they’re going to. I think, if they were going to dismiss it, they would have dismissed it by now.
This leads me to another HRTO Application that was filed against Gateway Co-operative Homes Inc. on Friday night. This other Gateway tenant filed because Gateway has threatened to unlawfully evict her. And yes, she has mental health disabilities too.
The Notice to Appear Meeting
On April 25, 2025, this Gateway tenant had to attend at a ‘Notice to Appear’ meeting at the Gateway complex, and I attended this meeting as her representative:
While I was there, I was given 15 minutes to speak on her behalf. Although Gateway’s paralegal interrupted me about half-way through the third page of my "speech", I did finish-up with the last two paragraphs, and let them know that we intended to file an application with the HRTO (which we did on Friday night), and that I’d be posting about this case on my website so the public becomes aware of their awful treatment of their most vulnerable tenants. Here’s a copy of what I said, if you’re interested in reading it:
The paralegal at this meeting was Cassandra Weatherston, who’s the same paralegal that assisted Gateway in unlawfully evicting the trafficked gal in October 2024. Every time I think of Cassandra, I imagine her during the trafficked gal’s various eviction meetings/hearings. The trafficked gal told me that Cassandra was “horrible” and that she “interrupts, talks overtop, and talks to you like you’re stupid”. But I guess that’s what’s she's supposed to do when her job is to advocate for landlords in front of the LTB. Isn’t it insane that there’s no advocates for vulnerable tenants with no human rights and there’s an unlimited supply of resources (government funding) for corrupt landlords?
Giving A Voice to the Voiceless
Anyways, Cassandra wanted the evidence of their most recent victim’s requests for accommodations, which are the emails/letters of issues this victim raised over the last 10 years. So I sent the evidence to Cassandra because, why not:
Training Public Housing Services Providers RE Mental Health Disabilities
My goal in all of this is to force staff of public/social housing providers to be trained in working with vulnerable tenants, specifically in recognizing and understanding the nature and impacts of mental disabilities within marginalized population groups. Unlike physical disabilities which are easy to spot and understand, mental disabilities are invisible and their symptoms manifest in completely different ways. When public housing services providers are unaware of the nature and impacts of mental health disabilities, it leads to abuse of power, causing evictions, which have turned the County of Simcoe into a human trafficking hot spot.
Additionally, between 2022 and 2024, Ontario’s homeless population has increased by 25 percent. And did you know that Ontario is the only province where responsibility for social housing has been downloaded to municipalities? Ontario desperately needs to change its approach to ending homelessness because whatever it is doing, is having the opposite outcome of its intended purpose. It’s time for Ontario to start listening to those affected by poverty and stop listening to those who think they know what’s best for people living in poverty.
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