ACORN Hamilton, ACORN Toronto, and ACORN London members held an action in front of 140 Tycos Drive in North York, Ontario on June 22 to deliver a demand letter from tenants who are fed up with the tenant displacement tactics employed by Family Properties. Finding an address with an active office to drop a demand letter was challenging, and illustrates the need for one of ACORN Canada’s national Stop Corporate Landlords campaign demands: the right to know your landlord.

OnEstEnsemble organized a protest with the eco-union of residents near the SOSUCAM sugar cane plantations. These residents’ crops of cassava, peanuts and yams were destroyed by SOSUCAM’s planes spraying pesticides. The residents gathered the destroyed crops and displayed signs in protest, demanding compensation.

The residents living near the sugarcane plantations of the Somdiaa group, a subsidiary of the French giant Castel, have been forced to uproot their cassava, peanut, and yam crops destroyed by the aerial spraying of pesticides by the company’s planes. In response to this devastation, several individuals gathered to protest and plan to dump their destroyed produce in front of the Sosucam headquarters. The victims are demanding significant compensation from the company for their immense losses.

Our Liberia affiliate, Justicitiz, forced multinational corporation Socfin Group to repair drainage they had destroyed months ago in Massaquoi town. How did they do it? Using the ACORN model! They held a “Fix our Drainage System and Anti Green-washing” protest. During the protest, armed police dispersed and chased after Justicitizs’ members. A few days later, Socfin workers repaired the drainage system, making the village safe from flooding again. Direct action gets the goods!

The Voter Purge Project Identifies Major Issues, Key Trends in Battleground States

Produced by ACORN Foundation India September 2022

Hanumanti Ramchandra Chalwadi has worked in the waste recycling sector in Dharavi, Mumbai, for over 40 years. She started out as a waste collector and separated recyclables from the city’s garbage. Later, she set up and ran her own waste sorting business for many years, which has a cumulative worth of Rs. 1 crore (0.12 million USD). A single mother, she raised her children on her own, and in this short documentary, she talks about her life and the challenges of being a woman waste entrepreneur.

Grenoble approves wearing the burkini in public swimming pools

The New York Times

April 18, 2022

The Female Soccer Players Challenging France’s Hijab Ban By Constant Méheut

Photographs by Monique Jaques

NB Tenants win year-long rent cap and eviction protection

The announcement of temporary 3.8% rent cap and eviction protections for New Brunswick tenants is a result of relentless campaigning by NB ACORN and our allies to end the NB Housing Crisis.  

Through organizing tenant power and taking action, NB ACORN has succeeded in forcing the Conservative government to provide a break for tenants from massive rent hikes and a constant fear of losing their home.  

Due to ACORN’s efforts, New Brunswick tenants will not receive massive rent increases they cannot afford for at least a year.  The new eviction protections mean that it will be far less common for tenants to be forced from their homes for no reason other than the landlord wants them out. 

While the rent cap is temporary, and the eviction protections do not appear to be as strong as they should be, both are certainly better than having no protections at all.

Moving forward ACORN will do what it always has done: continue to build tenant power and fight for tenant law reform in NB. Tenants need affordable and healthy housing. Tenants need to be secure in their housing. ACORN will not stop organizing tenant power and fighting for housing justice until we achieve those goals.

Since winning the temporary 2% rent cap in November 2020 – ACORN has been hearing stories and receiving rent increases from tenants whose landlords intend to raise rents after the cap lifts. Some increases are as high as $2000 extra dollars a month, while most range between $100-500 more. The new PC government has made it clear that they are not interested in protecting tenants from unreasonable rent increases past the state of emergency, so ACORN rallied in front of the legislature to demand they keep the rent cap.

We had 70 people at the initial rally, with 150 people dropping by throughout the day to sit in, tell their stories, and protest the government’s unwillingness to protect tenants. ACORN leaders Janet Niyonkuru, Lina Hamid, Hannah Wood, Sam Hall, Campbell McClintock, Pat Donovan, and Lisa Hayhurst spoke about everything from the discrimination they’ve faced as newcomers finding housing, to affordability, to issues getting repairs done in buildings.

Allied organizations and unions joined to both hold workshops and speak to the crowd. Nan McFadgen VP of the NSFL and President of CUPE, Gary Burrill and Suzy Hansen of the NSNDP, Christine Saulnier of the CCPA-NS, African Nova Scotian social justice and human rights advocate Raymond Sheppard, support workers and clients from the Truro Homeless Outreach Society, Vicky Levack speaking to universal design and accessible housing, Aparna Mohan from the Dalhousie Student Union, and Amanda Sprigs from the This Should Be Housing project. Along with a tenancy Q+A with Dal Legal Aid and food from The Loaded Ladle. 

There’s a compilation of news coverage below, and we’ve already forced a response from Premier Tim Houston! Residential Tenancies emailed the night of September 23rd and said the government no longer plans to lift the state of emergency when we go to phase 5, so the rent cap will stay in place for a bit longer. ACORN knows this isn’t enough, and we’re going to fight to make sure the rent cap is permanent!

Stay tuned for upcoming actions. And in the meantime, send an email to the Premier and your MLA here demanding permanent rent control and real action on affordable housing: https://acorncanada.org/take-action/keep-rent-cap

Read More:

NS Advocate: https://acorncanada.org/nova-scotia-advocate-media-release-acorn-rallying-keep-rent-cap
The Chronicle Herald: https://acorncanada.org/saltwire-group-rallying-legislature-fight-continued-cap-rent-increases
CBC: https://acorncanada.org/cbc-news-protesters-ns-legislature-demand-permanent-rent-control
Halifax Today: https://acorncanada.org/halifax-today-thursday-rally-will-call-rent-control-stay-place
The Coast: https://acorncanada.org/coast-acorn-rally-calls-government-extend-rent-control
CTV: https://acorncanada.org/ctv-news-rent-control-rally-held-halifax