Freedom Flyer 24

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

December 1993

Article electronically reproduced from:

September 29, 1993

Cheyenne Apartments Dispute

Proposed landlord sanctions include anti-racism classes

By ERIC BENDER The London Free Press Wide-ranging sanctions and reparations - including mandatory attendance at anti-racism classes - were proposed Tuesday as remedies if Cheyenne Avenue apartment landlord Elijah Elieff is found guilty of discrimination. SUGGESTIONS:Ontario Human Rights commission counsel Geraldine Sanson, wrapping up her arguments at a board of inquiry into charges of harassment and discrimination, outlined 14 suggestions that would help make amends for "harm" done to Elieff's southeast Asian tenants as a result of remarks and actions directed at them over a period of time. If implemented, the orders could cost Elieff a total of $455,900 outright plus even more money to comply with other terms. The commission asks that Elieff be required as far as possible to get his apartment mortgage back in good standing. Elieff, owner of apartments at 95 and 105 Cheyenne Ave., has defaulted on his mortgage and the mortgage holder is currently trying to sell the buildings. Meanwhile at Tuesday's sitting, Elieff's representative, Robert Metz, leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario, told the board the human rights complaints laid against Elieff were part of a plot by Susan Eagle, a church outreach worker with the Cheyenne tenants, and The London Free Press. "The purpose of the complaint filed against Mr. Elieff was to create an environment of moral justification for the lobby effort directed against him by Susan Eagle and to deflect his attention from her ultimate objective: control or ownership of Cheyenne apartment building," Metz said. "The campaign against Elieff is a calculated, fully orchestrated lobby effort which has included personal harassment including picketing his place of business, direct lobbying of the provincial and municipal governments for funds to acquire the buildings and the continuous stream of work orders all calculated to devalue his property or demoralize him to the point where he would sell or have his buildings taken over," Metz said. He said editorials and biased reporting of the Cheyenne situation and of the board hearings which began last November were done to establish the justification for turning the apartments into co-op housing - Susan Eagle's "dream." Metz told board adjudicator Ajit John that the human rights complaints launched by tenant Chippheng Hom and heard by the commission are "unfounded, trivial, frivolous and vexatious." SMALLER MINORITY: He said the discrimination was against Elieff because he is a landlord, an immigrant himself and a member of a smaller minority. He said comments Elieff made to a Free Press reporter were not racial but observations his Asian tenants or some of them were "messy" and responsible for property damage. Proposed remedies sought by the Ontario Human Rights Commission in the case of Elijah Elieff: Compensation for injury to dignity and self respect of tenant Chippheng Hom of $10,000 each for harassment, a poisoned living environment, denial of equal residential treatment and reprisal for a total of $40,000. Payment of $409,900 to the Cheyenne Community Tenant's Board to carry out repairs to the two apartment buildings. Elieff to take steps to make his outstanding mortgage payments. An order be made to set aside any conveyance of Elieff personal or corporate property since the beginning of the human rights hearing last November. Required attendance by Elieff at a recognized course in anti-racism training. (He would also have to provide anti-racism training for his son and any building superintendents). Elieff be required to hire a full-time, fully qualified superintendent for his buildings until all capital repairs are complete. Thereafter he must have a part time qualified superintendent living on the premises. Elieff be required to supply and pay for translation services so that his tenants fully understand in their native languages information on tenancy and their rights and obligations An order be made that Elieff pay $6,000 so that the "Cheyenne community" could take out a full page advertisement in The London Free Press for educational purposes. A request that pictures taken by the landlord in Hom's apartment without her consent be handed over to her immediately was not granted by the board adjudicator. The rebuttal and claims of Elijah Elieff: The complaints against him are unfounded, trivial, frivolous and vexatious. The basis of the complaint was generated in a London Free Press article which "misleadingly implied that Elieff's comment regarding destructive and irresponsible behavior at his Cheyenne Avenue apartments constituted a racial attitude (bias)." The purpose of the complaint was to deflect attention away from a plot by Susan Eagle and The London Free Press to seize control of his apartment buildings. The notoriety of the case has been generated by biased and inaccurate coverage in The Free Press and the "poisoned environment" of the tenants was caused by publicity in The Free Press and by Susan Eagle. Susan Eagle is guilty of personally harassing Elieff. Biased London Free Press editorials and negative and biased reporting were part of a "conspiracy" to justify to municipal and provincial governments and the public that they should fund conversion of Elieff's buildings into co-op housing. A "systemic evasion" that did not require authorities to enforce tenant responsibility was prejudicial to Elieff and it brought him before the board, the municipality, health officials and into The Free Press and before the public. The Human Rights Commission is being used in a frivolous manner as an element of the over all "campaign" against Elieff.

Both the commission and its boards of inquiry "harbor a prejudiced view of the minority groups that they purport to support and that as a consequence they advance racist agendas."

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