- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,198
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 0
Confusion over who controls the lawns of tenants in Ottawa’s social-housing complexes has a Conservative candidate complaining that he lost dozens of election signs without an explanation.
“They had given us a call earlier last week to tell us that we were not allowed to put signs on the front lawns of properties,” Ottawa West-Nepean candidate Abdul Abdi’s campaign manager Austin Jean said in an interview.
Jean figures about 50 Abdi signs have been removed from supporters’ lawns without any detailed explanation. Abdi’s campaign has since recovered about 10 of the signs but dozens more are just gone, he said, from complexes on Dumaurier Avenue, Ramsey Crescent and Caldwell Avenue.
Federal election law says landlords can ban election signs from common areas but generally can’t stop tenants from posting election signs on the properties they rent — only put “reasonable conditions” on the signs’ size. The same rules apply to condo corporations.
The thing is, said the housing corporation’s chief executive Stéphane Giguère, the front lawns of many of its housing units are actually common areas.
“Some (tenants) will be having access to their lawn because it will be fenced, for instance,” Giguère said. “For the ones that their lawns are in the open and OCH is doing maintenance, those are considered common areas.”
Social-housing residents are all welcome to put signs in their windows, he said. If they take care of their own yards, they can put signs there, too. They can even put signs in front of their homes if the housing company cuts the grass, provided they’re willing to take them out before the mowers come and put them back afterward, Giguère said.
He said Ottawa Community Housing sends out reminders of the rules during every election campaign but the ones for this extra-long campaign period are just going out around now.
Abdi’s campaign lawyer Golsa Ghamari said she’s had trouble getting her calls returned to find out what the campaign might have done wrong.
“If (the sign-planting) was done improperly, we’d be happy to rectify — the residents would be happy to rectify — but we don’t know what was done improperly, if anything at all. We just don’t know,” she said.
New Democrat candidate Marlene Rivier has run in the riding several times and has never had a problem with Ottawa Community Housing, she said. Her campaign hasn’t begun planting signs yet this time around.
The Liberals’ candidate in Ottawa West-Nepean, Anita Vandenbeld, didn’t return a call from the Citizen.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
“They had given us a call earlier last week to tell us that we were not allowed to put signs on the front lawns of properties,” Ottawa West-Nepean candidate Abdul Abdi’s campaign manager Austin Jean said in an interview.
Jean figures about 50 Abdi signs have been removed from supporters’ lawns without any detailed explanation. Abdi’s campaign has since recovered about 10 of the signs but dozens more are just gone, he said, from complexes on Dumaurier Avenue, Ramsey Crescent and Caldwell Avenue.
Federal election law says landlords can ban election signs from common areas but generally can’t stop tenants from posting election signs on the properties they rent — only put “reasonable conditions” on the signs’ size. The same rules apply to condo corporations.
The thing is, said the housing corporation’s chief executive Stéphane Giguère, the front lawns of many of its housing units are actually common areas.
“Some (tenants) will be having access to their lawn because it will be fenced, for instance,” Giguère said. “For the ones that their lawns are in the open and OCH is doing maintenance, those are considered common areas.”
Social-housing residents are all welcome to put signs in their windows, he said. If they take care of their own yards, they can put signs there, too. They can even put signs in front of their homes if the housing company cuts the grass, provided they’re willing to take them out before the mowers come and put them back afterward, Giguère said.
He said Ottawa Community Housing sends out reminders of the rules during every election campaign but the ones for this extra-long campaign period are just going out around now.
Abdi’s campaign lawyer Golsa Ghamari said she’s had trouble getting her calls returned to find out what the campaign might have done wrong.
“If (the sign-planting) was done improperly, we’d be happy to rectify — the residents would be happy to rectify — but we don’t know what was done improperly, if anything at all. We just don’t know,” she said.
New Democrat candidate Marlene Rivier has run in the riding several times and has never had a problem with Ottawa Community Housing, she said. Her campaign hasn’t begun planting signs yet this time around.
The Liberals’ candidate in Ottawa West-Nepean, Anita Vandenbeld, didn’t return a call from the Citizen.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
