In the dimly lit Rainbow Bistro, the Ottawa-based band Ruby Doom performed with fury and energy as the crowd head-banged to their punk rock sound.
Alongside bands Pretty Good and Sven, the trio headlined the Bank Block Tenants fundraiser concert on March 12, organized by the Neighbourhood Organizing Centre.
Bank Block Tenants are a group of tenants living in four apartment buildings on Bank and Nepean streets. Since receiving an N13 “demoviction” notice in October 2023 from their landlord and the company Smart Living Properties, the tenants have banded together to fight an ongoing legal battle to resist the buildings being torn down in favour of luxury suites.
According to the Bank Block Tenants’ website, funds raised at the event supported the tenants’ legal defence at its Landlord and Tenant Board hearing, which ran from March 17 to 18.
Currently, the Bank Block Tenants and Smart Living Properties are preparing written statements to submit to the board. After this, in the coming weeks, a decision will be made on whether a mass eviction will occur.
In addition to supporting the Bank Block Tenants, the event was also a show of support for tenants everywhere.
Ruby Doom, a band formed by best friends Dani MacDonald, Lauren Riley and Cadence Nixon from Brantford, Ont., agreed to play the event just two weeks before.
“In dark times it’s very heartening to see so many people come out for a cause that’s obviously so important,” Nixon said. “It’s really easy to dig yourself into a hole of being like, ‘everything’s terrible and everybody’s bad, and there’s nothing we can do.’”
Nixon said the band “loves stuff like this” and was excited to play. In their line of work she also said, the band will most likely have to rent housing for the rest of their life and as a result, have a “built-in” prejudice against landlords.
Megan Smallwood, a member of the Neighbourhood Organizing Centre, said any extra funds raised from the event will go toward a larger tenant defence fund to support tenants in Ottawa who are fighting against their landlords, as legal fees often arise with these issues.
“It’s been really exciting seeing all the support for not only the Bank Block Tenants, but for tenants across the city that are starting to resist and push back against their landlords,” Smallwood said.
Ethan Mitchell, a member of the Tenants of Sandy Hill and the Neighbourhood Organizing Centre, said the struggles the Bank Block Tenants are facing are a microcosm of the challenges stacked against a large number of tenants in Ottawa.
“Hopefully events like this show tenants that we do have the capacity to band together and fight, and they also show landlords like Smart Living that they’re not able to get away with isolating tenants and overwhelming us with legal cases,” Mitchell said.
Attendee and Carleton University graduate student Mikayla Smith attended in solidarity, adding she’s had very negative experiences with her landlord.
“I’m one of four roommates and it’s ridiculous how much we still pay for a room,” she said. “[The landlord] won’t answer. Things will break and they won’t show up. They charge so much for laundry and it’s broken half the time. Nothing gets fixed.”
Attendees Tara Gosling and Lilianne Boucher-Pfliger said they heard about the event through an email from the Tenants of Sandy Hill and decided to check it out.
As their first time at the Rainbow Bistro, Gosling said she enjoyed the venue’s atmosphere and enjoyed Ruby Doom’s performance.
Housing and landlords are top of mind for Gosling and Boucher-Pfliger, as they are planning to move into an apartment together in Sandy Hill.
“You can’t do anything about it, because [landlords] can just increase the rent whenever they want,” Gosling said.
Although fighting against landlords can be difficult and feel hopeless at times, Nixon said fundraisers like this one bring the community together and offer a renewed sense of hope.
“[Bank Block Tenants] are doing big things, and it feels like a small thing to just be able to contribute a little bit, but the fact it’s important to so many people is really inspiring and it gives hope.”
Featured image by Georgia Looman/The Charlatan.
