Renovictions, Real Estate, and the Selling Out of Canada

It makes me so angry to see what’s happening in British Columbia right now. People who have lived here their whole lives are being pushed out of their homes, while apartments are being snapped up by investors, flipped, and “renovicted” — all in the name of profit.

Just this week, a BC judge overturned the eviction of a 73-year-old renter, pointing out the landlord’s “questionable practices” and criticizing the Residential Tenancy Branch for not looking at the broader pattern. Think about that: a senior citizen was about to be forced out of her home, and only the Supreme Court saved her. That’s not a housing system — that’s a lottery of survival.

And when I ride the bus, all I see are real estate ads. Smiling faces promising to sell Canada piece by piece, targeting local buyers and overseas markets alike. It feels like our homes have been transformed into products for speculation, not shelter for people. Whether the ads are in English, Punjabi, Mandarin, or any other language, the message is the same: “Come buy Canada.”

Let’s be real. This isn’t about one community. It’s not about Indian buyers, or Chinese buyers, or American buyers. It’s about policy failures that opened the floodgates:

• Governments encouraged foreign money to flow into housing.
• Developers lobbied for loopholes that make evictions easy.
• The Residential Tenancy Branch failed again and again to protect tenants from predatory practices.
• Landlords learned they could renovict tenants, jack up rents, and face almost no consequences.

Ordinary people are paying the price. Seniors, students, working families — forced out of neighbourhoods they’ve lived in for decades. Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Victoria — it’s the same story everywhere.

Housing should not be a global investment scheme. It should be a human right. Until our governments put people before profit, more of us will lose our homes while investors line their pockets.

Canada isn’t just for sale. It’s being sold out — and we need to stop it.