Is There a Remedy in Law?

Section 5 of The Lease

~ Where law ends, there tyranny begins. ~
William Pitt

William Pitt died 203 years ago last month but it sure feels like he lived here when he said that.

The law died at 2100 Russell Road the day that Housing turned this building into a mixed bag. By definition, a tyrannical form of rule has an absolute dictator not restricted by a constitution, by laws or by opposition.

Contrary to what one might think, Ottawa Housing Corp. is not the tyrant. The tyrants are the drug addicts and their friends who have the law abiding citizens living in fear, in filth and with no discernible help from OHC and precious little from the police.

Why do I say that? Well if you call the police about something that you know but cannot prove, their standard answer is "Nothing we can do until they do something". I guess that means that if they intend to kill me, I can't hope the police will stop it until they actually pull the trigger at which time it is too late. OHC, as mentioned in an earlier post, can't tell you anything because absolutely everything is "confidential".

And if you complain to them, well it apparently is not recorded or the two addicts who have been tormenting the entire wing I live in would be long gone. Besides, when we mentioned this couple of addicts to them last year, they claimed to have no complaints about them. I strongly urge everyone here to write out their complaints. Telephone conversations are too easy to lose, erase, ignore or whatever. The problem as I see it is that we have people here who are illiterate, or literate but not articulate and people like this are so easy to put off, confuse, or otherwise ignore. Coming from people who have jobs that were designed to help, this is a very poor conclusion to come to but I see no other.

Add to that a Building Manager who spends as little time in the building as possible. Our Building Manager has probably spent more time harassing the seniors about their Welcome mats than managing. Well it does not take a rocket scientist to see that the bad guys have no competition when it comes to ruling.

The question was and is, 'Is There a Remedy in Law?'. The answer should be 'yes! The lease - a legal document signed by both tenant and a representative of OHC. These tenants (active drug addicts and thieves) are in violation of sections 5.1 and 5.2 of that lease. OHC covers their butt with a clause "The Landlord's ability to enforce these requirements is limited by the willingness of tenants to act as witnesses." The tenants are terrorized! Finding willing ones is not easy, especially if one does not work at it and believe me, it is hard to find anyone who has ever been encouraged even slightly by OHC. Why would OHC try to encourage anyone? It means 'work!' Oops, I used a 4 letter word! It also means that they have to care. Oops again! Another 4 letter word.

It sure would be really nice to have them make a liar out of me but I won't hold my breath. But if they do and it is more than a one time gasp, well I am a true Sagittarian - very big on fairness! I would write a blog to apology to end all blogs of apology. Further, I would print it out and put it up on our board - well maybe if one of the things they did was to find out who is tearing down everyone's bulletin board notices and have them cease and desist from continuing to be a pain in the butt. What a shame they all suffer from communication phobia. I know a lot of tenants who would love to hear that there was some hope attached to putting a notice on the board.