Open letter to Julie Trache, President and co-owner, Westsea Construction
Ms. Trache:
You made it clear that you want me and a few others out of your building when your lawyer Mark Stacey, of Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel, shouted as much at us in court during a case-planning conference last year before Justice Geoffrey Gaul, which likely made an impression on the justice; namely that Mr. Stacey represents a corporate bully.
And of course your lawsuit against us for daring to question your presumed-by-you right to bill all lessees your unlimited legal expense to oppose any single lessee did not just demand that we pay the alleged debt, but asked that the court order the sale of our suite lease assignments to fund its payment; we’d be punished AND no longer be around to pester you further. You’d be rid of us… and this website.
At the time of writing Justice Gaul is considering his decision on your preposterous position that all lessees should fund your legal opposition to any one or group of them, which ignores precedents and the simple logic of fairness and access to justice. We’ll leave this posting here for future readers, who will know what the outcome was, and you might even come back to it, should you have a Scrooge-like revelation about your behaviour as a landlord.
I’ve also been a landlord, Ms. Trache; I owned several investment suites and had numerous tenants over the decades. I didn’t find it necessary to act oppressively to perform that role, nor did I end up in court. I also chaired a condominium board for 15 years, and I led a municipality for almost a decade. Sure, I enforced the rules, and even created some needed new ones, but I found it easy to have open communication with those housed in my properties or governed by my council, and never found it necessary to sue to evict someone.
In response to your effort to evict us—as well as other low-income lessees in other buildings at other times—and more generally in reaction to your mean-spirited and even un-christian behaviour as a landlord, I reply as follows. You will not win the petition lawsuit, and your desire to evict me specifically is a pipe dream. I like the studio suite I hold and intend to live out my days in it, maintaining this website and these postings until I shuffle off this earth. I’ve also made arrangements that this website will be funded and be maintained beyond my lifetime, so that it can wave you on your way, when it’s your turn.
Yet I’d take these posts down in short order if you were to have the suggested Scrooge-like revelation and henceforth treat your tenants like the reasonable, humble and low-income folks they are. At that point we might even chat; you know where to find me.
-Your lessee tenant, Gerald Rotering
OrchardHouseLeaseholder.ca 