Tenants and housing committee holds demonstrations outside TAL office in Montreal

The Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ) organized a demonstration in Montreal alongside frustrated tenants during the “Au tal, ça va mal!” action week on Wednesday.

They protested the failures and inequalities of the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) and want better access to justice for tenants.

Demonstrations took place outside the TAL office and chairs were set up to form a mock waiting room.

“The TAL should guarantee access to justice for tenants since it represents the only place where tenants can assert their rights that the law is supposed to guarantee them,” said RCLALQ spokesperson Cédric Dussault. “Instead, it has become the symbol of an inequitable and failing system. It is imperative and urgent to reform it to restore balance in the relations between tenants and landlords.”

Dussault added that the TAL has been prioritizeing cases that are opened by landlords rather than tenants.  

“So, right now it is functioning very well for landlords. It is basically a machine that is evicting tenants when they are unable to pay the rent on time. They do not recognize the biases. They recognize that there is a lack of services, but they say that this is a staffing problem, that it’s a budget problem. If we had a rent control, if we had less bias over the cases that are opened by landlords, we would have better access to justice for tenants.”

In Quebec City, protests were also held outside the TAL offices where a giant board game was set up to demonstrate the challenges that tenants face trying to access TAL services.

According to a press release, the housing crisis, which affects major cities like Montreal and Quebec City, affects all regions, and has prompted housing committees in several regions to organize demonstrations as well.

Dussault explained how hard it is for tenants to get information over the phone when there are no in-person appointments available.

“It’s not possible to get a lot of information on the phone because most calls go unanswered. So, it’s really first a lack of information and second it’s because the TA;L prioritized the cases that are open by landlords. So, when you want to open a case as a tenant you have really long delays. So, there is a lack of confidence for tenants over this institution and right now, 88 per cent of the cases that are treated are open by landlords compared to only 12 per cent for tenants,” he said.

The Abitibi-Témiscamingue Tenants Association and the Bas-Saint-Laurent Housing Committee organized rallies earlier this week, on Nov. 25 in front of the Rouyn-Noranda TAL and at the Rimouski TAL offices on the 26th.

On Wednesday morning, a banner was installed in Alma, and another demonstration will take place in the afternoon in front of the TAL office in Joliette.

“Also, the Sémaphore collective, in collaboration with the RCLALQ, installed a luminous projection of tenants’ complaints taken from Google reviews and shocking statistics that that highlight the TAL’s failures,” noted the press release.