THUNDER BAY — A tenant whose visitors allegedly committed violent acts against other occupants of a city housing complex was evicted from her apartment under an order from the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board.
In a decision issued in May, the OLTB found there was an "urgent need" to terminate the tenancy of a woman living in the Andras Court apartment building on Cumberland Street South.
The landlord – the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board – applied for her eviction on the basis of incidents in September 2023 and April 2024.
In the first occurrence, after the tenant and two guests exited her unit to go to the sunroom, video footage showed one guest repeatedly punching another woman in the head.
The tenant was observed taking the victim's cell phone from her to prevent her from using it.
Following an altercation with a male associate of the victim, another frequent guest of the tenant returned to the apartment to retrieve a machete, then proceeded to kick a third man in the head and body and hit him repeatedly in the head with the machete.
The 31-year-old assailant was subsequently charged by Thunder Bay Police with attempted murder and aggravated assault.
In the second incident, police were dispatched to the tenant's unit after a man claimed he had been held there against his will for multiple days, and had been assaulted numerous times.
Thunder Bay Police charged multiple individuals with forcible confinement, assault with a weapon, and assault.
After hearing the DSSAB's eviction application, OLTB member Julie Broderick was satisfied the landlord had proven on a balance of probabilities "that persons the tenant permitted into the residential complex engaged in criminal misconduct that seriously impaired the safety" of others in the building.
"This dangerous and life-threatening conduct of the tenant and the tenant's guests put the other guests and other tenants at serious risk for their personal safety," she wrote in her decision.
Broderick said she was also satisfied, based on the uncontested testimony of the social services board's representative, that the woman had continued to associate with "persons who continue to engage in dangerous criminal conduct" in the building.
She approved the virtually immediate termination of the tenancy, failing which a sheriff from the Ministry of the Attorney General would be asked to enforce the order.
Officials with the DSSAB say they are continuing to lobby Queen’s Park for a streamlined process for public-sector landlords to evict tenant who pose a danger to their neighbours.
