Unfazed by their would-be evictors’ successful push through city hall to rezone their block in July, the working class tenants of Myron Manor and their supporters rallied outside an art auction sponsored by the corporation seeking to displace them.
The Myron Manor Collective were joined by the Vancouver Tenants Union along with community supporters and fellow neighbors from the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. Their target: an auction taking place inside the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, a luxury 5-star hotel located in Downtown Vancouver.
The Splash Art Auction is an annual fundraising event for Arts Umbrella, sponsored and presented by Nicola Wealth Investment, a multi billion dollar asset management company. Residents and supporters of the Myron Manor Collective called out the events claim to be bettering the lives of children, while their kids are pushed out by Nicola Wealth in favour of a long-term stay hotel.
Participants to the auction used money acquired through their ventures to bid on art pieces starting at a range from $500 to over $5000. Protestors greeted the bidders in suits and fancy gowns arriving at the hotel with slogans like “Nicola wealth funds the arts, but they don’t have a heart!”
The rally was the latest in a series of actions put on by the tenant collective and the VTU. In July, they disrupted a Nicola Wealth-sponsored charity golf tournament and then mobilized hundreds of supporters to speak to the city council at a public hearing on the rezoning of their block.
Other sponsors of the Art Auction included corporations which conduct or manage real estate development like RBC, Strand, Sangra, BTY, and more. Alongside these corporations was First Majestic Silver Corp, a major Canadian mining company currently embroiled in a dispute with the Mexican government over $155M in allegedly unpaid taxes.
“Nicola Wealth pats themselves on the back for donating to charity and underprivileged kids, they’re stealing from children’s futures” said Syd, an organizer with the VTU. “The profits that they gather for their ‘ultra high net worth clients’ come straight from the children of Myron Manor’s futures. They come straight out of the retirements of seniors at Myron Manor. They come straight out of working people’s pockets.”
A neighborhood fight
The action in front of the Fairmont hotel wasn’t limited to just the building’s residents. Over 60 people showed up to call out Nicola Wealth and protest what they say is a years-long trend of profit hungry displacement which has been happening in the neighborhood.
“Landlords have been picking off more and more [affordable] places… ‘We’re gonna knock things down, move people around, find rehousing coordinators’” said Ian, a neighbor of over 25 years to Myron Manor, on the modus operandi of developers in the neighborhood. “It’s a landlord’s game now and 20 years of city government seems to have been lying down and allowing landlords to do whatever they want.”
The city allowing what they are doing is “criminal”, according to Danila, a catering chef and mother of two at Myron Manor, reflecting on the struggle had at City Hall. “We tried to fight the recent rezoning that would change the current lot into a hotel. We had around 250 people speak in support of us, against 20 speakers supporting the rezoning, but ABC passed in unanimously.”
“We will fight together until we win together!”
Despite the blow faced to the building after the hearing, residents of Myron Manor stay strong and confident in their struggle against Nicola Wealth. “Myron Manor is a place where we have neighbors and friends and community,” said Danila. “[That community] has brought out a lot of solidarity in working class tenants.”
“Even though they listened to 13 hours of [testimony against the rezoning], the ABC counselors didn’t have anything to say during discussions. They voted as a bloc to approve this hotel” said Syd. “But it just affirmed how much everyone wants to keep fighting. There wasn’t anyone that I talked to in this building that seemed discouraged.”
“[I stand with the] Myron Manor tenants and what they’re feeling,” spoke Abby, near the end of the rally. Abby is a member of the VTU, who has been fighting a loophole landlord have used for the past two years. Recently, just three months ago, Abby won her case legally, dismissing her eviction. “We will fight together until we win together!”
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