I was in the middle of a nightmare dealing with a rental house that became toxic to my health.

I later on found out it was toxic mold, but NO ONE & I mean NO ONE from the government helped me. All they did was constantly pass the buck to the landlord & tenant board & if you know anything about them, you know it’s a waste of time going to them, as they favour the landlord most of the time. Or they passed the buck to the Canadian Public Health Department.

I tried to get Public Health to come into my home numerous times but they wouldn’t. I even had to go up the ladder & I got no warmth or sympathy AT ALL from any of them.

From my point of view, they were cold heartless individuals who clearly couldn’t care less about my health or fixing this mold toxic problem.

I even talked to I think the Ontario Public Health department & after learning that bleach does NOT get rid of mold, in fact all it does it make you & your house more toxic, I was SHOCKED to hear the guy at Ontario Public Health tell me to use bleach. It even says that on their website or it used to.

COMPLETE MORONS!

FINALLY the kid from Windsor or Essex County Public Health came in to look at the mold, saw there was mold, then wrote a report that took him weeks to send me, saying they wouldn’t force the landlady Margaret Collins to fix anything. That it was beyond their prevue.

They didn’t check behind the walls with special equipment, they just did a cursory view & if you know anything about mold, most mold spours are invisible to the naked eye & are behind walls, under carpets, etc.

I tried to get them to come in again & after numerous angry phone calls, they appeased me, but the minute the two of them came in (they sent two kids now, not just one), I knew they had NO intentions of doing their job properly.

They just took pictures, claimed it was dirt & or only minute amounts of mold, & closed the file a second time.

Anyone who thinks the Canadian government cares about their citizens LOL, think again. In 2010 & 2011 I had to finally accept that me living in Canada was toxic to my emotional & physical health. After years of being abused by landlords, I realized (this is my opinion) that the government just allows this type of abuse, which is why it continues on & has continued on since I started renting back in 1984. This time it went too far with me physically being ill & having no heat the entire Canadian winter.

Did anyone from the government care (I called multiple departments)? NOPE!

It’s not enough that 90% of all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) don’t give Canadians unlimited access or at least enough access so they can watch videos on the Internet & surf normally, now the CRTC is going to allow ISPs to charge Canadians by the minute. This will mean Canadians will pay a fortune if they want to watch any kind of video online & you need to understand, we don’t just watch TV shows, we watch videos from sites that have nothing to do with TV. Videos are only becoming  & more popular.

Does Rogers have anything to do with this? PROBABLY!

If you are appalled with being treated in this manner, please sign this petition.

It’s 2010 & Canadians still have little to no choice when it comes to Cable, Phone Service & Internet Service. Any other smaller companies that offer these services are using Bell Canada’s lines, so there aren’t much savings there either.

There is monopoly Canada wide & the government doesn’t care because they have been & still are part of the problem. We’ve always thought there was corruption going on & the comments elude to that fact as well.

NetFlix just entered the Canadian market which will FINALLY give Canadians choices so they can find other alternatives to the expensive capped services of Bell Canada, Rogers, Shaw (owned by Rogers) & Cogeco. But WAIT… some of those 4 companies are banning together to try & stop NetFlix from giving Canadians inexpensive ways to watch TV & movies. The other way they are trying to get rid of NetFlix is to lower the caps on people’s Internet usage so they go over their limit & then they can charge them more because they know people will eventually leave their cable service for NetFlix. This will make people think twice about leaving Cable for NetFlix.

Once again I doubt anything will change because all we will see is bitching & complaining & not enough Canadian citizens rising up to put a stop to this nonsense. This Canadian will be calling the Ombudsman’s office to find out who to call to complain.

Here’s the article…

Once again Canadians let the Canadian government walk all over them & it comes at a terrible time when Canada is still in a recession.

Every province in Canada with the exception of Alberta is now charging Canadians even more retail tax combining 2 separate taxes into one called the HST. 3 of the weakest provinces started the HST back in 1997.

The HST amount varies depending on the province, but it’s around 13-15%.

Tons of services that were never taxed before or were only taxed the GST (5%), are now being taxed an extra 8 or 13%.

This all comes as a shock to this writer, as we were FINALLY able to save some money because they lowered the GST down from 7% to 6% in 2006, & then down to 5% in 2008. This after we waited 15 years for them to do away with the GST altogether because they told us the GST was a temporary tax. Canadian’s idea of temporary is to keep the tax for 16 years & then increase it 8% 17 years later.

So what do Canadians get from all this extra tax?

The government says they are giving back more to the people by reducing income tax, but no one could explain to this writer how that will give more to lower income people who get a refund every year. When we asked one governmental official, she didn’t say the refund we get would be higher. Lower income people still have to pay HST on almost everything they have to buy. Not to mention anyone who buys goods on credit won’t be getting back the HST just because they pay slightly less in income tax.

Many households received a pittance cheque of anywhere from $100-300 for the year, but when you add up how much HST you are paying & will pay, that won’t even come close to covering it. Also once again Canada penalizes you if you don’t have children. They will give you some money if you have children, but nothing if you don’t. That’s how they run their income tax strategy.

While this has nothing to do specifically with HST, reading this thread makes you realize how complicated Canada makes consumer retail tax so that Canadians have no clue what they are supposed to pay tax on, nor how much. This allows some companies who know the system to rip Canadians off & pocket the money.

In the States most Americans know exactly how much they pay & there’s none of this game playing with you paying one amount if you buy X items vs. paying less or more tax for another set of items.

If you think about it, the US obviously has hundreds of thousands of actors vying to make it big while Canada has only a small percentage of that, so if there are a lot of Canadian actors who have made it big, to me this logically means that the pool of Canadian talent outweighs the US talent.

So I started compiling a list of Canadian talent not just as actors, but directors, etc.

Then I came across this list of actors who are either from the UK, Ireland or Australia & was shocked as to how many talented actors there are that we think are American, but really aren’t.

While this has nothing to do with Canada, the point I’m trying to make is that yes, there are many Americans actors who are talented, but as far as I see, most of the real talent comes from outside the States.

Here is the short list I’ve come up with & I’ll add more as I come across more Canadian actors:

James Cameron – Director (Terminator(s), Aliens, Titanic, & Avatar)
David Shore – Writer/Producer (House)
Victor Garber
Michael J. Fox
Keanu Reeves
Jim Carey
Martin Short
Kiefer Sutherland
Catherine Anne O’Hara
Ellen Page
Peter Jackson
Emily van Camp
Shawn Ashmore
Aaron Ashmore

– Americans vs. Canadians –

Americans vs. Canadians

Just seeing what was going on in Vancouver really made me want to go over there & party with them. LOL

Then when I saw the closing ceremonies, I was shocked at how beautiful it was.

It sounds like Canadians FINALLY opened up & started letting loose. They almost sounded American in their glee & joy LOL Hope that energy & drive continues & convinces the Canadian government to start protecting their citizens & give them the help they need.

I’ve decided that the way to tell how great a country is, is by how they treat their poorest of citizens.

Well Done Canada

Michelle

Laws may change, so please always check with a government site or official before taking my word for anything.

—————————————

So it came to my attention a few years ago that Americans have a LOT more regulations in place when it comes to landlords, while at least here in Ontario, landlords get away with murder.

Tenants are for the most part treated like 2nd class citizens & generally (not always) the landlords win every case in the Tribunal.

After being ripped off regarding a rent to own scam, I learned a lot more about the whole Landlord & Tenant situation within the Toronto area. It was my first time going to court for a really big case having to defend myself against a landlord who had ultimately ripped me off.

Of course who won? The landlord.

During  my many months defending myself, I learned the following:

1. About 90% of all cases brought to the Tribunal are brought by the landlord, NOT the tenants. I know for a fact that most tenants either just move to avoid having to face the landlord in court, they don’t complain because they know nothing will ever be done, or a 3rd option is that they pay for the problem to be fixed even though it’s not their house so the landlord gets their house fixed for them free of charge.I believe this is why there is a constant war going on between landlords & tenants. I know that the minute the landlord lies to me or starts to disrespect me, I lose all respect for their house & while I would never go out of my way to harm the house I live in, I no longer care about keeping it as if it were my own.Why should I, they don’t respect me, so I don’t respect them.

   To show you how bad the situation is amongst tenants, one time just as I was moving into a house, the guy living in the basement ran out to warn me about the landlady & what a bitch she was. He said I shouldn’t move in.

   He told me he’s had water from rain flooding in his apartment for months, & she won’t fix the problem. I asked him why he didn’t take her to court. He just shrugged his shoulders. He planned on  moving out within the next day or two.

   That tells me that tenants just don’t want to deal with the stress, or they think they won’t win anyway which is most likely true. So, they just grin & bear the abuse.

   Remember, moving is one of the top 3 stressors in life. People don’t want to have to move if they don’t have to.

   I know that in every single house I’ve ever rented, the landlord has NEVER wanted to fix any of the problems & they either stalled in fixing the problem, or they brought in cheap unlicensed unskilled handymen instead of real contractors so essentially the problem still remained.

   Since I was 18, I’ve lived in probably 10-15 different houses within the Toronto, Ontario area & it’s always been the same abuse. Either the house is freezing, the toilets don’t work, there is mold, the dishwasher doesn’t work well, the water pressure in the house is terrible, the lights don’t work, cupboards are broken, etc.

   In that house where the guy in the basement warned me… in the end he was right. The slum landlord had had around 7-10 different tenants going in & out of her house (that’s how much mail was piling up) & the utilities were in HER name, so when it came time for winter, the gas company REFUSED to turn the gas on because she didn’t pay her bill. Can you believe that???

   I called the property standards branch which is a joke, had them come over & you know what they said…

   Because I didn’t have a lease, it was as if I didn’t live there, so there was nothing they could do about it.

   I went the entire 3 months with NO heat in the dead of Canadian winter & no one cared. They didn’t even care that there was a child in the house.

   Then the slum landlord was allowed to put the house on the market & I had no choice but to allow tons of people into MY HOME on a constant basis.

   I was told this is the scam she pulls in order to get the tenants to move out. Once they move out, she changes her mind about the house going up for sale & she rents it out again.

2. I also learned that most tenants don’t even know the laws that protect them. For example, in Ontario, a landlord can not tell you that you can’t have a pet, yet in 98% of all rental ads they say “no pets”.
3. Most of the laws protecting tenants are not enforced & as you will see below, whatever laws that do exist, they definitely do NOT measure up to what the US has in place for their tenants.
4. A lot of the adjudicators don’t even know the laws & make tons of mistakes in court.
5. Lastly, I could tell that the adjudicator for my case was against me & for the landlord.That’s the problem, these people who judge these cases have biases against tenants because they are home owners themselves, & maybe some of them have also been landlords or they have a friend or family member who’s been a landlord, so in my opinion, there’s no way they can be partial to the situation.I know that almost ALL landlords think that all tenants are scum. I’ve even talked to governmental officials who let their disdain for tenants shine through during the conversation.

Here is what I learned about the States… If I don’t say otherwise, here in Ontario we do NOT have any of this available to us tenants in the Toronto area.

1. Each municipality has a body that overseas the tenants’ rights.
2. All landlords have to be licensed.
3. Lawyers can not show up in court to represent landlords or tenants because the Tribunal (not sure what they call it in the States) isn’t a criminal or civil court.
4. They aren’t adjudicators, but actual REAL judges who know the law.
5. Landlords have to paint the entire house before a new tenant moves in.
6. Landlords have to clean or replace the carpet before a new tenant moves in.
7. In some cities there are associations that help the tenants if they are having problems with the landlord.All the tenants have to do, is call up, explain what is going on with the landlord, & the association takes over to fight their cause.In some cities there’s even a hotline tenants can call, like 311.
8. In some cities there are housing inspectors that inspect the condition of the house, the quality of the contractor’s work, etc.
9. Landlords can NOT put a house up for sale while there is a tenant living in there.
10. The gas company can NOT prevent the tenant from having gas in the home, even if the landlord has not paid the bill.
11. Not sure if this is a law in the US, but over here in Canada, the landlord does NOT have to disclose why you aren’t getting the rental property even if they promise it to you verbally. This allows for gender, ethnic, single mother discrimination, etc. which of course has happened to me several times & I’ve been told I’d get the house & then within a few days or a week, suddenly they aren’t returning calls, or I hear I’m not getting the house & I just wasted my time.

So you be the judge of which country you’d like to live in. Your home is your most precious commodity, it is supposed to protect you & make you feel safe.

Many many Americans think Canadians have it soooo great over here & I feel we don’t & here’s why:

1. First I just found out that what the citizens receive regarding health is Provincial, NOT Federal like I had originally thought.
2. I live in Ontario, so I can’t speak for the rest of the provinces.
3. Over here, every year the Canadian government is slashing more & more health services the people in Ontario receive. I only notice this when I go to inquire about a health service I need which isn’t often because I don’t believe in conventional medicine, only holistic medicine, so you can imagine how much they have slashed that I don’t know about & can’t detail here.Some of the things they have slashed over the years…

   Chiropractic services – I’m not even sure what they cover anymore since I no longer see chiropractors, I see osteopaths, but back when I was seeing my chiropractor, he was complaining OHIP had slashed how much they would pay towards each visit.

   Eye exams aren’t covered under health care (kids under the age of 16 get them for free, otherwise unless you are over the age of 65 or on some sort of disability, you have to fork over the $85+ dollars.)

   It used to be that you could get an eye exam every year, then they made it every other year, now you don’t get anything at all & that’s a service I DO need since I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 7 years old.

4. I just recently heard that in British Columbia they are allowed acupuncture treatments, while in Ontario they allow for NOTHING holistic at all, so I pay through my taxes for conventional services I NEVER use.
5. While I agree that if I got into a car accident & needed emergency care I would need Canada’s health care system, but I don’t live in fear & think “what if”.I live in the here & now & I feel that holistic doctors & alternative health care should be covered. I should have the choice of how I deal with my health, I shouldn’t be forced by governments to use doctors who farm out chemicals to try & heal patients – which of course never works.
6. Speaking of emergency care…If you go to the hospital, you have to wait for minimum 2-4 hours to see anyone.

   I heard years ago that in the Toronto area people coming in on ambulances were turned away even if they were bleeding all over the place.

   So Americans, think AGAIN, Canada does NOT provide proper health care.

7. Did you know that MDs (medical doctors) are no longer taking on new patients?You heard me, as of about 8-10 years ago all the general practitioners stopped taking on new patients.

   That’s one of the reasons why the hospitals are always so full of people waiting to see a doctor. Several years back they closed own a ton of hospitals in the province of Ontario.

   In the Windsor area when I tried to find a doctor, I was told I had to APPLY LOL, can you believe that?

   Never in all my years have I heard of anything soooo ridiculous. You have to apply (like a job) to see a doctor? And of course this one doctor’s staff didn’t return phone calls, so when I kept pressing, one of his staff just turned me down right on the phone saying THEY choose who they want to take on & we AREN’T interested.

   Thank god I wasn’t seriously ill, clearly that Dr. is an asshole, so he treats his patients as such.

   My point is, he wasn’t the only doctor requiring an application AND the wait time to even be approved is minimum 3-6 months.

   CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT????

   If I needed health care right now, what would I do???

   One of the main reasons (I’m sure there are others I don’t know about) for this is because all the good doctors moved to the US to work over there.

   They couldn’t stand being ripped off by Health Canada, so they all moved down south.

   I remember 13 years ago approximately hearing that obstetricians weren’t being given the same amount of money to deliver babies, so this obstetrician I was seeing STOPPED delivering babies.

   It’s just amazing to me how Canadian citizens get the short end of the stick & other countries think Canada is sooo great. IT’S NOT!

8. Americans are generally shocked when I tell them that dentistry is NOT covered & this is a HUGE thing. I can’t send my son or myself to a dentist because it’s just too costly.
9. Many Canadians who need specialists go down to the States just to get immediate medical care. I’ve been hearing this for years.
10. Because I haven’t had a family doctor in years, I go to walk-in clinics for blood tests or anything else I may need & when I go, I receive very poor patient care. I was shocked as to how these doctors even managed to get their license to practice medicine in the first place. Any of the doctors in these walk-in clinics (one doctor had his own practice he wasn’t a walk-in) I went to didn’t know how to perform vaginal exams (they actually avoided it & had ME do it instead).

    Yes, you heard me people, the doctor was passing off HIS JOB to me, the patient. The woman at the lab who took my swab (the doctor made me walk it to the lab) was furious that the doctor himself wasn’t doing the exam & she had complained several times before.
    Another female doctor at a different walk-in clinic did a mercury blood test on me as per my instructions. It came back elevated, & she had NO CLUE what that meant.

    Her words, “I’ve never done a test like this before” AND, she wasn’t some young chicken out of med school either.

    This is WHY I don’t deal with conventional doctors, because unless I’m going in for surgery which I don’t believe in, they seem to be about as clueless as someone who isn’t a doctor.

So Americans, you tell me if you think Canada has a good health care system.

Here in Canada, when I had to ask the government for help to help put food on the table, not only was I put on a waiting list for months, their program was low end & here’s why:

1. Depending on how much money you needed every month, it would either last you 3 months or 6 months (I think it was 6, it could have been 12). I needed every penny, so I went the 3 month route because you got a lot less if you went on the program longer.
2. You didn’t get the full amount of money, because you had to PAY them $40 to get the gift cards to go grocery shopping at Superstore. Yes, you heard me, you have to pay the government to get their help.
3. The entire program is geared towards trying to get the family to budget their money better & while I agree with the concept, the total scrutiny by telling me I was paying too much in rent when I didn’t feel I was was disheartening. They tried to make it seem like I was overspending when nothing could have been further from the truth. These ARE the prices for rent in Canada, they are THROUGH the roof & the Canadian government CLEARLY doesn’t know this or just looks the other way.

   In fact, every time I tell people how much I pay in rent for my house, they are shocked at what a good price I pay.
   The case worker wanted me to move from a home I feel comfortable in (I work from home, so my surroundings have to feel comfortable to me.)

   Her logic was also out to lunch, but I expect this from these people. They don’t listen to each case individually, they use a formula that THEY feel should cover EVERYONE.

   Somehow in her mind it was better for me to pay $1-2k to move (that’s how much it costs me every time I move) to a government house that was more disgusting plus go through all the stress & the lost days of work & school for my son, then to just stay put.

   She “claimed” the government houses were as nice as the one I was in, but I didn’t believe her.

4. She gave me the woman’s information who was supposed to help people find new housing, I called & left a message, but I never heard back from her. Told my case worker, nothing ever came of it.

This may not have been a typical welfare program, I was never sure, but when comparing it to a program in the States, it once again shows that Canada doesn’t take care of its citizens if you have no money.

My sister in Monsey, New York is on the food stamp program & it’s an ongoing program, they don’t try to guilt her, tell her to move (she’s paying double what I pay in rent every month), in fact she says they encourage her to get the help.

Keep up the GREAT work Canada, you are a LOVELY country – NOT