Cole Webber

Cole Webber

@colewebber.bsky.social

legal clinic worker in Parkdale, Toronto. New book: https://btlbooks.com/book/renoviction-and-resistance-in-the-capitalist-city

226 followers235 following122 posts

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

Across the street is the Starlight Investments head office which made me wonder if the same is true for landlords who use numbered corporations to hide their identities and call police on tenants for protesting evictions and rent increases

Alex Bozikovic@alexbozikovic.bsky.social

Toronto bike lane removal. When your infrastructure project has huge police protection and the contractors hide the logos on their trucks and gear, you are in the wrong.

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

Thanks to The Leveller for covering the book event we did in Ottawa earlier this month

The Leveller@theleveller.bsky.social

City Hall and the #Ontario LTB are not tools that work for tenants, because they work for landlords, argues Toronto authors in new book on renovictions and tenant union organizing. Read analysis and the #Ottawa discussion here: leveller.ca/2026/09/new-... #ottpoli #onpoli

leveller.caNew Book States Tenant Organizing “The Only Solution” to Renovictions, AGIs - The LevellerBy Ashley Liza Fernando On September 14, 2026, Cole Webber and Phillip Zigman discussed their latest work, Renoviction and Resistance in the Capitalist City, at the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s...

Cole Webber reposted

The Leveller
@theleveller.bsky.social

City Hall and the #Ontario LTB are not tools that work for tenants, because they work for landlords, argues Toronto authors in new book on renovictions and tenant union organizing. Read analysis and the #Ottawa discussion here: leveller.ca/2026/09/new-... #ottpoli #onpoli

leveller.caNew Book States Tenant Organizing “The Only Solution” to Renovictions, AGIs - The LevellerBy Ashley Liza Fernando On September 14, 2026, Cole Webber and Phillip Zigman discussed their latest work, Renoviction and Resistance in the Capitalist City, at the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s...

Cole Webber reposted

Gabe Oatley
@gabeoatley.bsky.social

A six-month rent strike has ended in victory for a group of Toronto tenants. The landlord has agreed to drop a sought-after 5.4 percent rent increase. The change came about a week after after tenants went to Montreal, aiming to pressure their landlord in person. www.torontotoday.ca/local/real-e...

torontotoday.ca‘Significant victory’: 6-month Parkdale rent strike ends in victory for tenantsIn 2025, the landlord of 75 Spencer Ave. proposed an above guideline rent increase of 5.4 per cent

Cole Webber reposted

Manuela Vega
@manuelavega.bsky.social

A group of Parkdale tenants have ended their six-month rent strike after they say property management company MetCap Living agreed to withdraw a request to hike rents at their rent-controlled apartments 5.4% above the guideline amount. Latest @thestar.com www.thestar.com/real-estate/...

thestar.comParkdale tenants end six-month rent strike after landlord withdraws AGI requestLandlord MetCap had asked Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board to raise rates in the rent-controlled Toronto building 5.4 per cent above the provincial guideline.
Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

"There was no response after knocking on her door. After around eight minutes waiting outside her home, the group was met with two uniformed police officers responding to a 911 call, according to Bryan Doherty, a member of Parkdale Organize."

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

Thanks to Briarpatch for publishing an excerpt from Renoviction and Resistance in the Capitalist City in their housing issue

Briarpatch Magazine@briarpatchmag.bsky.social

In an abridged excerpt from their book Renoviction and Resistance in the Capitalist City, Cole Webber and Philip Zigman argue that this strategy allows landlords to increase rent values and thus the overall value of their properties. www.briarpatchmagazi...

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

An enjoyable part of supporting tenant organizing is documenting struggles in the form of print newsletters featuring interviews and discussions between organizers that are then distributed under doors in the building and nearby buildings to inform people and build support for the organizing

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Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

This allows tenants to clarify their ideas and develop their politics. Hearing these reflections is, of course, very informative for the outside organizer. And the printed newsletters are both a reasonably effective outreach tool and a form of media that may add to the pressure on the landlord

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

An enjoyable part of supporting tenant organizing is documenting struggles in the form of print newsletters featuring interviews and discussions between organizers that are then distributed under doors in the building and nearby buildings to inform people and build support for the organizing

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

Asking tenants questions like 'why are you doing this?' and 'how have you been organizing?' in a group setting outside of the usual planning meetings and day to day organizing work gets people talking and collectively reflecting on their practices

Cole Webber reposted

gayham
@grahamericlatham.bsky.social

Mixtape/newsletter for August: a clutch of reggaeton- and cumbia-adjacent tunes, and a bit of writing about how things like “rights” are always an unstable formation, always the outcome of ongoing social struggle (so we’ve gotta keep fighting!). anything-everything.ghost.io/actually-exi...

anything-everything.ghost.ioactually existing“Perhaps it never was our welfare state?” - The London Edinburgh Weekend Return Group, In and Against the State (1979) Gavin Matts, a stand-up comedian originally from Vancouver, has a bit about bein...
Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

This article makes some good, critical points about housing non-profits, but despite acknowledging that 'Keynesianism is long dead', the author concludes by calling for a return to Keynesian housing policy

Canadian Dimension@canadiandimension.bsky.social

The primary function of non-profits is not to solve social problems, but to run cover for a state that has largely abandoned the direct provision of essential services. As Laurence Braun-Woodbury writes, our housing crisis cannot and will not be solved by a fractious and marketized third sector.

canadiandimension.comHow not-for-profits make the housing crisis worseNon-profits no longer exist to supplement social services but to replace them on the cheap. They erode service quality, undermine labour power, and intensify Canada’s democratic deficit. As Laurence B...
Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

Looking forward to this book discussion in Ottawa. We'll be joined by Andrew Crosby, author of Resisting Eviction: Domicide and the Financialization of Rental Housing (Fernwood, 2023).

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

By disqualifying migrant workers from receiving social assistance payments, the economic compulsion governing workers to work even longer hours under even worse conditions is intensified

TorontoToday@torontotoday.ca

dlvr.itOntario makes changes to social assistance rules based on immigration statusPremier Doug Ford first vowed to make the change following media reports about a tribunal ruling that awarded Ontario Works payments to a man who came to Canada decades ago on a temporary work permit that has since expired
Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

The report finds 'homelessness increased most in communities where the lowest-cost rental housing became more expensive and less available' but does not examine the process through which this takes place bsky.app/profile/cole...

Cole Webber@colewebber.bsky.social

Eviction as landlord business model: "Lankin focuses on properties that are subject to rent controls but have a 30 to 50 per cent gap to market rents. With its buildings having an annual 15 to 20 per cent turnover, it can profitably capture that gap." www.renx.ca/lankins-apar...

renx.caLankin’s apartment portfolio grows with Guelph acquisitionLankin Investments’ Lankin Real Estate Growth LP has acquired an 80-unit purpose-built rental apartment at 33 Dawson Rd. in Guelph, Ont. for an undisclosed price.
Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

Eviction as landlord business model: "Lankin focuses on properties that are subject to rent controls but have a 30 to 50 per cent gap to market rents. With its buildings having an annual 15 to 20 per cent turnover, it can profitably capture that gap." www.renx.ca/lankins-apar...

renx.caLankin’s apartment portfolio grows with Guelph acquisitionLankin Investments’ Lankin Real Estate Growth LP has acquired an 80-unit purpose-built rental apartment at 33 Dawson Rd. in Guelph, Ont. for an undisclosed price.

Cole Webber reposted

Heatwave Magazine
@htwvmag.bsky.social

Replying to @htwvmag.bsky.social

Surveying the many forms of organization and struggle that persist between and connect moments of open revolt, Neel identifies the imperative to build communist power as made up of three interwoven processes: theoretical, practical, and spiritual.

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

We're doing another book event at the Toronto Reference Library on July 7 at 7pm

Between the Lines@btlbooks.com

Upcoming author talk at the Toronto Public Library on Renoviction and Resistance in the Capitalist City by Cole Webber and Philip Zigman! 📆 July 7, 7 pm 📍Toronto Reference Library 🚪Beeton Hall, 1st Floor Learn more: tpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/events/6a...

Cole Webber
@colewebber.bsky.social

New child poverty report finds the ward Parkdale-High Park to have the lowest child poverty rate in Toronto, and Jameson and West Lodge—where Parkdale tenants are concentrated—to have child poverty rates comparable to wards with the highest rates in the city

Cole Webber reposted

Toronto Star
@thestar.com

Several of Toronto's outreach workers worry about a crackdown on homeless people that may already be happening ahead of the 2026 World Cup. People report being ticketed for loitering, searched and told to leave for hanging around, and allege violence from private security guards.

thestar.comAre homeless people at Union Station victims of a World Cup crackdown? Here’s what’s going onThe city says its pilot project is trying to better co-ordinate outreach at the hub. But advocates say they’re hearing about violence and harassment.