What is the Toronto Tenant Union (TTU)?
Bruno Dobrusin: The TTU is a citywide tenant union that was formed in April after the York South—Weston Tenant Union (YSW), which is the organization that we both come from, joined together with many other tenant groups and also Climate Justice Toronto. Our goal is growing the tenant movement and trying to guarantee that everybody has a union at home, just like they should have a union at work.
Sharlene Henry: Also, we want to make sure that folks live with dignity, in housing that is affordable and suits their needs.
Last fall, Ontario’s Bill 60 gutted tenant protections, and attempted to end rent control, prompting a huge backlash. How did the fight against Bill 60 influence the TTU?
BD: Bill 60 is very purposely written against things like the rent strikes that we organized. The backlash to the bill was huge, both organized and unorganized. I think in the end, YSW and other groups knocked on like 20,000 doors, mostly in Toronto, but also we supported canvassing in Peterborough, Oshawa, Barrie and other cities. We had almost 500 people sign up to door-knock. It was a preview of what a city-wide tenant union could do. We targeted big landlords and conservative MPPs in districts that normally we wouldn’t have gone to. It showed us how much we can do as a coordinated group,and how hungry tenants are for this kind of organizing.
SH: Bill 60 felt like a huge slap in the face. We had never really organized around how people vote, it was all about where we lived and having dignified housing. Bill 60 showed many of us that this has to be more than just about our own housing. It has to be a pushback against the government and the big landlords too. We didn’t think that the Bill 60 backlash would be so quick. Non-tenants also got involved. Parents were like, “My kids are never going to be able to rent a place. They’re going to leave school, be in major debt.’’ It was amazing to see that we could come together so quickly.
Conflicts often happen in single buildings, like when tenants fight for repairs or against evictions. How will the TTU help with individual building fights?
SH: So, we have tenant associations in individual buildings, and those are supported by the three TTU branches: York—Etobicoke, Downtown and Scarborough—Don Valley. This lets us put a call out to the whole city or to a specific neighborhood to have folks come in and support something like an above-guideline rent increase fight in a building in Scarborough. That means that you have not only that tenant association in that building, which could be just 20 people or 100 people, but you have the support of your whole branch and then you can put a call out to the whole city.
BD: Right now we have tenants in two buildings in Scarborough owned by Barney River, which is the same corporate landlord that the Lawrence and Keele tenants went on a rent strike against. There is a lot of institutional knowledge that is built by someone who already fought that landlord. Tenants in the TTU can talk about a landlord’s weak points and what can work in a fight.
The City of Toronto recently strengthened the RentSafeTO program, including giving the city the power to bill landlords for repairs. How did tenant power contribute to those changes, and how useful are they?
BD: These changes came after a huge push from the tenant movement. And it wasn’t just from us. Groups like Acorn organized at 500 Dawes Rd. [in the east end] for many years to get the city to move on repairs there. It’s really important to get this city on your side to get things fixed. If you have no heat in the winter, having the city fixing it makes a huge difference. For RentSafeTO to actually work though, you need an organized building. You need people to be pushing the landlord, to be calling inspectors to actually show up, and pushing the authorities to find the landlord. It’s not like you make a call to the city and they send a whole bunch of people to fix your building.
SH: The most common thing to organize tenants around is repairs in their building. If something’s not being repaired in my unit, my neighbor is probably not getting repairs either. And to knock doors on my floor or in my building, and to talk about our repairs being done in your units, that’s the easiest way to organize tenants.
What should candidates running in the municipal election do to support tenants?
BD (who is married to city council candidate Chiara Padovani): We need candidates to not be afraid to take the side of tenants. For many years, we’ve had this informal political assessment to not campaign for tenants or on their issues, because that’s not going to get you elected. I think that has changed over the last few years, and you see it on votes in council or how many candidates are speaking about tenant issues. But what are they going to do when there is a conflict between a landlord and tenants in their own community? Are they doing everything in their power to actually try to get the tenants dignified living? Are they calling for building inspections? Are they putting political pressure on the landlord?
SH: I’d love for council candidates to understand that as tenants, we are almost 50 per cent of the city. When push comes to shove, what are you going to do to help that building’s tenant association? How will you make sure that their needs are met?
What else do you want people to know about the tenant movement and the TTU?
SH: We want tenants to become members all over the city. We want to grow the movement. Go to our website and join. So many tenants are living in fear each and every day. In my building, if it wasn’t for the empowerment of being part of a tenant union, they would not be able to speak up, they would not know their basic rights, they would not be able to push back against all of the systems that are meant to keep tenants silent.
BD: Sometimes tenants feel that there’s no winning, but we’ve shown that we can win and that we win very often when we get organized.
This article appeared in the 2026 Jun/Jul issue.