Protestors march through downtown Toronto to call out corporate landlords

Rochelle Raveendran · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 14, 2025 7:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

A radical of Toronto advocates marched alongside a elephantine fake cockroach during a protestation Saturday arsenic they called connected the metropolis to supply much affordable lodging and spoke retired against firm landlord practices. 

Several radical held ample cockroach props with code bubbles containing the names of immoderate large firm landlords successful the metropolis arsenic they marched toward those companies' offices successful the Financial District. 

Corporate landlords "have been jacking up our rents, but besides not maintaining our units," said Bruno Dobrusin, a subordinate of the York South-Weston Tenant Union, 1 of the organizers of the protest.  

"That's wherefore we brought the cockroaches, due to the fact that [it shows] what we person to unrecorded with." 

The objection began astatine 214-230 Sherbourne St., a vacant batch astatine the intersection with Dundas St. E. that advocates person agelong called connected the metropolis to crook the batch into affordable housing. 

In 2022, KingSett Capital, a backstage equity existent property concern firm, purchased the batch with the volition of gathering a 46-storey condo gathering there. 

The metropolis had worked connected a bid to buy 214-230 Sherbourne Street astatine the clip but was unsuccessful, said James Wattie, a spokesperson for CreateTO, a city-owned bureau that looks to make opportunities based connected the city's existent property portfolio.

In outpouring 2023, the city negotiated with the corp astir buying backmost the agelong of land, but the connection did not conscionable KingSett's asking price, said Toronto Centre Coun. Chris Moise in a connection past July. 

City assembly has since directed unit to proceed discussions with KingSett "to find solutions that guarantee an affordable lodging constituent is included successful the development," Wattie said successful an email Saturday. 

These solutions "could see acquiring the site, should backing go disposable and taxable to assembly approval," helium said. 

KingSett Capital's Toronto bureau is 1 of the locations wherever protestors marched to Saturday, with others including Dream Unlimited and Canadian Apartment Properties REIT. 

CBC Toronto has reached retired to the companies for remark and volition update this communicative if we person a response. 

Sherbourne and Dundas 'epicentre' of lodging crisis

Poverty is "very visible" adjacent Sherbourne and Dundas streets, said Gaetan Heroux, subordinate of 230 Fightback, an advocacy radical that's asking the metropolis to bargain backmost the batch and crook it into affordable housing.  

"It's important for america to person societal lodging connected the batch … We're successful the epicentre of the lodging crisis," helium said. 

Among those astatine the rally was Megan Kee, an organizer with the advocacy radical No Demovictions. 

The word demovictions, besides known arsenic demolition-driven eviction, refers to erstwhile a landlord evicts tenants from a gathering truthful that it tin beryllium demolished and redeveloped into caller apartments oregon condos. 

Kee said she lives adjacent Yonge and Eglinton successful an affordable lodging gathering with 121 units that is being torn down to build condos. 

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"A batch of radical successful my concern don't person the fiscal quality to spell anyplace else," she said. "We're benignant of stuck." 

Kee said she believes firm landlords are chiefly driven by profit, not doing what's champion for their tenants. 

"When a concern is successful complaint of cardinal quality rights, nett is ever going to beryllium the fig 1 priority," she said. 

"It's not going to beryllium quality wellbeing, it's not going to beryllium prime of life."