July 2025 Newsletter

Summer is well upon us, and we hope you’re staying cool. Here at the VTU, we know there’s nothing cooler than tenant solidarity: organizing with your neighbours and directly confronting real estate capital. Since part of tenant solidarity is keeping each other safe, we're sharing Riot Street Medicine's very informative printable zines on extreme heat first aid: 1) Instagram 2) Printable Zine (A bit hard to read on a computer, apologies!)

Upcoming Union Events

July 15th (Today!) - 6:30-8:30pm at 1090 W 70th Avenue, Keep Your Landlord In Check - Know Your Rights workshop hosted by Marpole Chapter. See our instagram post.

July 17th - 7:30 p.m. at Douglas Park, Fairview Chapter Social

July 20th - Join us for a free movie screening at 118 Alexander Street! Doors open at 6 PM."Red Ant Dream" is not just a documentary that takes us behind the scenes of the Maoist uprising in India, but an important reminder that the roots of leftist revolutionary action in the Indian subcontinent began under British imperialism and continued under state capitalism. Hosted by East Side Chapter. RSVP required. See our instagram post.

Urgent Fundraiser

This Tuesday, July 15th, Palestinian Canadians are planning a series of sit-ins in front of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) offices starting in Toronto, and spreading to cities coast to coast. 

The sit-ins are being held in support of family members who are trapped in Gaza, and whom the Canadian government is ignoring despite their eligibility for evacuation. This money will go towards food, water, first aid, transportation, and supplies for the sit-in participants, as well as signage, communication & visibility tools, and other costs to support these protests.

You can find out more and donate to the fundraiser at this link

June GM (General Meeting) Debrief

On June 28th we had a GM focused on Disability Justice. You can read a summary of the meeting's minutes here.

We began with an introduction about disability justice, especially how it compares to a disability rights framework. Rights are something that people in power can give you and take away, while justice fights for things that can’t be taken away: values, identity, and community power. We continued with breakout group conversations about our own accessibility needs and times that stood in the way of doing work we wanted to in the union.

An important takeaway from this conversation is that accessibility looks different to everyone. Postering, for example, said to be a “low barrier” activity for getting into the union because it doesn’t require any special knowledge, is not accessible to many people with mobility issues. Remote access to meetings is essential for the participation of many who may not be able to transit to a meeting place and sit through a long meeting (especially if people aren’t masked), but is often thought of as secondary to in-person participation. We must continue to stay on our toes regarding accessibility in the union so we don’t lose out on valuable contributions, or burn people out, because people's accessibility needs aren’t being met.

The housing crisis affects us all, but not equally, and often it's our disabled comrades facing the brunt of this crisis. 

Three motions were passed:

• A Solidarity Statement for Migrant Justice, where we resolved to publicly endorse a joint group statement written by Migrants Rights Network calling for the withdrawal of Bill C-2. You can read that statement here: http://migrantrights.ca/actionslist/stopc2/
• A motion for conditional participation in the steering committee of the new National Tenant Organizing Fund. We, along with 5 other tenants unions across the country, were invited to join the steering committee of a new National Tenant Organizing Fund. We know very little about this fund, so our participation is conditional, with explicit rights to withdraw from any time, until we learn more about it, including where the money comes from and if there are stipulations to spending it. 
• “Motion to Adopt Accessibility Standards for the Vancouver Tenants Union” passed with heavy edits. No changes to the VTU bylaws were made in this revised motion. Instead, it passed with an amendment reading.
  • BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Vancouver Tenants Union will continue to develop an Accessibility and Disability Justice standards and mandate. This work will be done either in the Education and Outreach working group or in the Disability Justice and Accessibility Education working group, should one be established.

• Despite the complexity of the debate, the amended motion passed with overwhelming support, with only one noted abstention and the rest in favour. While no explicit changes were made to the VTU bylaws, this motion hopefully begins what will be an ongoing conversation about accessibility in the union. Our goal is that this conversation will continue in chapters about what access needs are not being met, who’s unable to turn up to events/meetings that would like to, and to create a culture that directly challenges ableism within and without the union instead of allowing it to thrive in silence. Housing Justice means justice for all!

The first meeting to discuss the implementation and ongoing work of accessibility within the union will take place Thursday July 24 at 7pm, online and in person. Please email [email protected] for the in-person address and its accessibility information!

Chapter Updates:

West End:

Things are heating up in the West End and we’ve been busy building tenant power across the neighbourhood. We will have more updates on our recent organizing activities in the next newsletter, but we’ve seen some big wins for Park Beach tenants and are supporting campaigns elsewhere in the West End as well.

We are also excited to announce our first collaboration with the West End Seniors Network (WESN): We'll be hosting a tenant rights workshop with the WESN in the Multipurpose room at Barclay Manor (1447 Barclay Street) on Friday August 29th between 1:00-3:00pm! Stay tuned for more details.

Lastly, we’ve also been out in the neighbourhood postering and tabling to connect with more tenants in the neighbourhood. Please stop and chat if you see us!

East Side:

East Side chapter has continued to support Abby’s campaign to stay in her home. As Abby’s next court date, a judicial review, comes up in December, we’re meeting regularly over the summer for art builds, door-knocking, and community socials to keep up the pressure on Abby’s landlord.

Since city council approved the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan (a Broadway Plan for the east side), as well as a rezoning around Commercial-Broadway, over the next few months we’ll also be looking for leads in areas likely to be targeted for demovictions. Join us as well for a movie night later this month: we’ll be watching Red Ant Dream together July 20!

Mount Pleasant

The Mount Pleasant Chapter meets every Tuesday at 7PM. Reach out to us at [email protected] to get in touch and join our meetings!

It has been a busy time for our chapter! June started with our successful Landlords are a Joke”comedy fundraiser! The sold out event was MC’d by Katie-Ellen, a tenant in an organized building and talented comedian. Five local comedians performed and helped us raise $1800 for our union.

The next day, we showed our strength at a rally for the Moss Boss outside of Andrzej Kowalski’s (Terry's landlord) apartment downtown. Kowalski did not answer his buzzer to speak to the 1177 Tenants Collective in person, but was spotted sneaking around a corner to take a photo of us before scurrying away! 

At the RTB later that week, Terry won by default because the case was thrown out on a technicality. The celebration was short lived, Kowalski issued a new eviction notice just hours after he lost the hearing. But we won’t let him rest! The Moss Boss and everyone involved is in good spirits to continue to apply pressure and demand that the eviction is dropped and profit-based evictions are put to an end. 

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks and continue to ask your neighbours and friends to send a letter to Kowalski and the BC Government demanding that Terry’s eviction be dropped, once and for all! Send now at DefendEastVan.ca

On June 17th, over 40 tenants spoke up against the redevelopment of 469-483 E 10th Avenue. Led by the tenants whose homes are under threat of demolition, each speaker highlighted the contradictions and failures of the project and of the TRPP that’s allegedly meant to protect tenants. While the development was approved without limitation by the entire city council, as usual, tenants and their supporters used this opportunity to highlight their circumstances and will continue to fight to protect their homes. 

Along with members of the Fairview Chapter, we have now launched a Defend Broadway Tenants campaign online! Head to vancouvertenantsunion.ca/defend_broadway to read tenants affected by the Broadway Plan break down the city and the media’s lies about housing affordability in the Broadway corridor. In the coming weeks, we plan to finalize the website and begin a large postering campaign. 

Fairview:

Have you received terrible relocation “support” from the City under the Broadway Plan? The City is mandated to provide displaced tenants with support to find a suitable new home. But, as the Broadway Plan proceeds, our neighbours have been receiving lists of Craiglist postings for move-in the following day, that don’t allow their pets, and that otherwise don’t meet their needs -- adding insult to the injury of eviction. If you’ve received bad relocation support from the City under the Broadway Plan, please reach out to [email protected]! We’re hoping to compile some examples to show the real scale of this problem. 

We’re also holding a social on Thursday, July 17, 7:30 p.m. at Douglas Park! Come meet neighbours, build tenant power, and share food.

Joyce-Collingwood:

Joyce-collingwood and Marpole chapters have teamed up to bring Keep Your Landlord In Check - Know Your Rights workshops to South Van! The next one is happening in Marpole, on July 15th, from 6:30-8:30 at 1090 W 70th Avenue. We’re hoping to continue to have these events through the year, and our goal is to have live translation at future ones to make them more accessible to wider portions of the community.

JCTU members have been hard at work creating interactive materials for tabling on the last day of Collingwood Days events. 

Additionally, we are joining forces with Migrante, Anakbayan BC, and Marpole chapter to work on a September (date pending) GM focused on Migrant Justice. Stay tuned!

Marpole:

Members of the Marpole chapter have been busy keeping up with different campaigns and committees across the wider VTU, discussing various educational materials to improve our theory and practice, and providing support and mutual aid to our newly organizing building in the neighbourhood! The tenants at Karma have been dealing with neglect and poor treatment from their building managers for years. While some have decided to leave, many still believe moving is not an option and are ready to assert their tenant power. Want to get involved with us? Send us a DM at @marpolevtu on Instagram or email us at [email protected]!

North Shore:

The North shore chapter has been busy building its presence in the community and our actions have seen results. We're currently organizing a building to defend against a landlord intimidating tenants into signing new tenancy contracts with illegal terms, charging illegal fees, and issuing eviction notices as a means of retaliation. Some of what we're seeing in this process demonstrates what many of our comrades across the inlet know all too well - landlords want to get rich at the expense of tenants and the Residential Tenancy Branch offers numerous tools for landlords to bully their tenants with little recourse. The best recourse we've seen so far is when tenants organize together, push back and don't give in to their landlord's demands. The movement on the North Shore is growing and we're proud of our active membership that's committed to standing against landlords in the city that continually tops the list for highest rent in Canada. If you're on the North Shore and want help with your landlord please reach out to [email protected]. 

In solidarity, North Shore Tenants

UBC: 

In the spring, after collective pressure on UBC, we won a reduction of rent increases in Acadia Park family housing from 5% to 3.5%. Since then, we have taken a step back and started to strategize and familiarize ourselves with the political economy of housing at UBC. This is a good time for this, as campus is typically quiet in the summer. But we plan to hit the ground running in September with plans to raise awareness about tenants issues on campus and build a base of UBC tenants. Our meetings are every second Tuesday from 12pm-2pm in the Thea Koerner Penthouse room 466, 6371 Crescent Rd, above Koerner’s Pub. The next meeting will be on July 15. We are still working on our communications systems, so for now please reach out at [email protected]

VTU News:

Bill C-2: Enshrining the Surveillance State

Forever cementing his status as a conservative with a ‘Liberal Party’ sticker slapped on his forehead, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cohort are now quietly pushing through Bill C-2. This sweeping piece of omnibus legislation decimates civil liberties under the bogus guise of “security” and “border integrity.” If passed, this bill continues the Canadian government's efforts to construct a digital surveillance state by granting law enforcement and immigration authorities unprecedented powers to monitor, detain, and deport refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants without any meaningful oversight or due process.

At over 100 pages, Bill C-2 overhauls a laundry list of laws in one brutal blow. According to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, it touches everything from immigration to policing to privacy, with no broad consultation taken. Legal experts have already pointed out that much of this power grab likely violates Charter protections, particularly Section 8, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure. We’ve already endorsed a joint statement from the Migrant Rights Network condemning this cruel, racist, xenophobic, and dangerous bill.

But what’s actually in Bill C-2?

For starters, it would allow warrantless surveillance of anyone residing in Canada. Police and CSIS would have free rein to access your online history, emails, and metadata based on mere “suspicion.” Internet service providers, hospitals, banks, hotels, or anyone else who provides a ‘service’ could be forced to hand over your information and then be legally barred from telling you it happened. No need for a judge to sign off on a warrant, and no outlined appeal process for you to challenge the fact your data is being seized — because you won’t even know. The definition of ‘service provider’ given by the bill itself is troublingly broad and unclear, with some legal analysts speculating this category could also include doctors, lawyers or even librarians.

Canada Post also gets the green light to open your Lettermail and hold it for up to 60 days. Got a rent cheque in the mail? Too bad, we gotta inspect it ‘cause vibes. If the government decides you meet the subjective threshold of being “of interest,” they can seize and detain your correspondence with zero accountability and won’t compensate you a dime for it.

The bill enshrines vast powers onto immigration officials, which will allow them to cancel, suspend, or revoke visas and refugee claims with little excuse needed. It would also legally cap refugee applications to one year after arrival in Canada and make it much easier to deport rejected applicants. All the minister needs to do is declare it is in the “public interest,” a phrase that is both legally undefined and unlimited in scope; it’s a blank cheque.

These changes aren’t just administrative tweaks. They open the door to targeted suspensions and mass cancellations of immigration documents. According to the Migrant Rights Network and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Bill C-2 could allow the government to cancel or pause processing for entire groups of people based on nationality, visa category, or other arbitrary distinctions. The bill copies what we’ve seen in the U.S., which is actively deporting and detaining migrants and anyone they see as a “threat” in camps without trial.

One need only look to history to understand that framing refugees and migrants as a threat is a timeless authoritarian distraction. The housing crisis wasn’t caused by immigration. It was engineered by decades of deregulation, real estate speculation, and government neglect. Blaming immigrants and displaced people for domestic inequality is wrong, harmful, and dangerous. Ask yourself: who benefits from this narrative? Is it migrants, International students and refugees who live overwhelmingly in substandard housing? Or is it landlords, real estate speculators, and investors whose myth of a “free housing market” lets them profit on sky-high rents while laying the blame on a scapegoated “other”?

Additionally, this legislation allows for financial surveillance under the banner of “anti-terrorism.” Given the Canadian state’s endless desire to label Palestine solidarity activists as threats,  it’s likely this bill will be used to follow the UK’s lead, where the group Palestinian Action was wrongfully designated a terrorist organization. It could also help open the door to future U.S.-style crackdowns, including the unlawful arrest and attempted deportation of student protesters like Mahmoud Khalil, among many others. 

What we’re seeing is a classic move straight from the United States playbook: bury radical expansions of state power in technical, complex legislation. Fast-track it. Frame it as “reasonable and good for the everyday voter.” Then kick back and count on public fatigue to let it pass.

But people are watching. Hundreds of organizations have already condemned Bill C-2 for what it is: an attack on privacy, migrants, and dissent itself.

Borders are imaginary. Rights are not.

The Province’s War on Supportive Housing Tenants:

Under the nauseatingly tired framing of “public safety,” BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon recently announced that the provincial government is considering removing all supportive housing units from the scope of the Residential Tenancy Act. This move would strip tenants in these homes of the legal protections the Act is designed to guarantee.

Kahlon paints a grim picture of supportive housing environments, with violent criminality running rampant around every corner. But the reality doesn’t support his alarmism. Crime in Vancouver has been steadily declining for years, according to publicly available police and city data. Kahlon also likes to lean on the claim that these rollbacks of tenant rights are only occurring to better deal with a few “problematic tenants,” implying that this move is highly targeted and casts a “small net.”

Stripping all supportive housing tenants of their rights is anything but surgical. It’s a blanket ruling, one that will have catastrophic impacts on supportive housing tenants’ agency and ability to defend themselves in the already dire situation that is Vancouver’s housing market. Once RTA rights are stripped away, tenants are left with nothing to rely on but good will; good will doesn’t protect anyone. When it comes to consultation, the province is happy to talk with housing providers, cops, and unions, but not with the actual people who will be affected by these changes.

We cannot continue to let the government lay siege to our collective rights under the guise of “law and order” and “safety.” It’s our job to stand up as a community and reject the regressive notion that poverty equals crime. We need to put more resources into helping vulnerable communities at the margins, and less into the police forces that brutalize them. We need to expand the protections of marginalized and at-risk communities, not strip them away. We need to realize that the people who are out to get us aren’t those on the bottom rungs of society, but instead the hegemonic powers who feed us narratives that keep us pointing downwards instead of upwards.

New Advice Column?

We’re experimenting with a new idea: VTU advice column! In this section of the newsletter, we seek to answer tenancy-related questions from readers and tenants in Vancouver and post responses by campaign organizers or other members with knowledge or experience on a specific issue. 

Got issues with a landlord and not sure what to do? Maybe they’re entering your unit unexpectedly, giving you unexpected fees, and ignoring your unit's cockroaches and mold? Unsure about your rights as a tenant, or how to assert them when your landlord flagrantly breaks it, as so many do? Any other issues, no matter how specific? Send us questions YOU would like to hear answered in this newsletter and we will do our best to answer. Help us help you!

Solidarity Wins & Updates:

- The annual Vancouver Dyke March is happening on August 2nd, 2025 at 12pm

- Bayan orgs in BC are having a BIG rally coming up on July 27th in protest of the Philippine President’s annual State of the Nation Address. From bayan.bc’s Instagram: “This claims to serve as a means to inform the nation about its present economic, political, and social condition, but in reality the President outright lies to the people about the situation in the Philippines: from botched numbers on improvements in poverty to false promises of development of social services.”

Join Bayan BC, Gabriela, Migrante, and other orgs for the PEOPLE’S State of the Nation Address (PSONA) at Civic Plaza near Surrey Central Station, July 27th from 5-7pm!

Additionally, there is a primer on the political and economic situation in the Philippines on July 17th at 6pm!

The RSVP link can be found here.

- Surrey hotel workers at the Sheraton Hotel in Guildford - members of Unifor local 3000 - voted to begin strike action on July 5th, after more than a year of bargaining and a failure on the employer’s part to propose a fair deal. Solidarity!

- Asians 4 Safe Supply is looking for submissions for a zine aiming to “create a sense of community for Chinese drug users, and create resources for Chinese-speaking communities to have conversations around drug use that don’t center shame and stigma.” The zine will be published in Chinese and English. Format is open to writing, art, mixed media, and interviews. Max 500 words. Submission deadline is July 31st. Check out their instagram post here for more info

- Solidarity Across Nations: Moncada’s Revolutionary Legacy, With Special Guest Speaker & Book Signing by Gerald Horne

Date: Friday, July 26
Doors Open: 6:45 PM
Event Start: 7:00 PM
Location: Russian Hall – 600 Campbell Ave, Vancouver, BC

VTU members will be tabling at this event, hosted by the Canadian Cuban Friendship Association's Vancouver Chapter

Lastly, we have a final reminder that this newsletter is member-driven. If you've got suggestions for content, or if you just want to help put it together, send an email to [email protected]

In solidarity,

Vancouver Tenants Union Newsletter Team