Residents allege harassment
Security firm issuing tickets, banning people
Manager cites drug trafficking in Dixon Rd. complex
Sep. 27, 2006. 07:42 AM
SURYA BHATTACHARYA
STAFF REPORTER
Sons cannot visit families. Mothers can't pick up their children from daycare. And the disabled have been banned from their relatives' homes.
Some Somali-Canadians who live in three Dixon Rd. high-rises, also known as Little Mogadishu, complain they are being harassed by a security company that is issuing tickets to residents, banning them from some buildings for up to three years — with a warning that showing up again will get them arrested for trespassing.
While some claim the trouble results from a misunderstanding of how Somalis mingle socially, others blame outright discrimination.
At least 50 residents, joined by members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, gathered last week to protest their treatment by Intelligarde, the firm that provides security at 320, 330 and 340 Dixon Rd.
Their complaints aren't new. Fifteen years ago, Somalis who were fleeing civil war and settling in the Dixon Rd. area faced similar problems with another company's security service, amid complaints their customary evening gatherings were too loud.
"We don't know our rights. That's the problem," said Burhan Mohamed.
He said neither he nor his wife, Faduma, have been allowed to pick up their three kids from the daycare that's located behind 340 since Faduma was issued a trespassing ticket while compiling signatures on a petition against the security firm. (He had been issued a ticket earlier.)
Faduma claims the guards followed her back to her apartment and then ticketed her.
She has proof. On a videotape she took of the incident, a guard, shown writing a ticket in front of her neighbour's door, says: "You cannot go into 330, 340. You live at 320."
Intelligarde's president, Ross McLeod, said his firm was hired to deal with a drug-trafficking problem in the buildings.
McLeod claims that large amounts of khat (or qat), an amphetimine-like stimulant popular in the Middle East and East Africa, are being bought and sold within the buildings. Legal in some countries but listed as a controlled substance in Canada since 1998, khat is typically chewed or made into a tea. It is a traditional part of social gatherings in the Somali community.
"The issue there is the place was used as a ... sale point for this drug, and even running a business out of a condo unit is contrary to all the declarations of the bylaws, and certainly selling an illegal drug is even more so," McLeod said.
McLeod added that he is not concerned with anyone who uses it mildly or "consumes this product in their own apartment."
"Maybe some people see it as an attack on their culture. It certainly is not from our point of view. It is an action against people who are in the business of selling an illegal drug.
"Is there some level of misunderstanding at the level of individual consumption? I have no doubt there is," he added.
Among those joining Friday's protest was a limping man who has formally complained to police that he was handcuffed and beaten while paying a visit to the complex on Sept. 17 — so badly so that he was hospitalized.
Abdulkadir Al-Jellani said he was visiting friends, including a disabled relative for whom he buys groceries, when a security guard asked for his identification in the elevator. When he refused, he was taken out of the elevator and beaten, he says. His case is awaiting a court date.
"Everybody you see has a complaint has a pain (injury). We are not complaining for nothing," Al-Jellani said.
"I've lived in Canada for 17 years. I pay taxes here and I'm a landlord of two condos," he said, gesturing to a nearby building at 370 Dixon. "But they handcuff and beat me up and say, `You shouldn't be in this country. Go back to where you came from.'"
McLeod said the company's employees have the authority to ask for a visitor's ID.
"If new people just appear to be hanging out, or going to known drug units, yes, then they may be asked for identification. Establish two things: Either you live here or you're a legitimate guest," said McLeod.
Property manager Joe Natale estimates 4,000 people live in the buildings' 900 units. The board of directors elected by the condo owners was disbanded over administrative problems, replaced by a court administrator.
Natale agreed that "the harassment has to stop," after he was surrounded by protesting residents showing him tickets they'd been issued. He said it's important to single out those who traffic in khat but he has also agreed to co-ordinate a meeting between residents and Intelligarde.
Some non-Somali residents welcome the security company's vigilance, including one man who said he had been jostled by men in the corridors. But Ahmed Jama, who still rents an apartment at 330 Dixon, is staying away in fear after being ticketed for causing a disturbance. The mentally disabled man said he was issued a ticket when guards found him leaving his aunt's home at 320 after he had dinner with her. He claims they threatened to lock him up for three years.
Tenants recently created an association, and workshops are underway at which Somali Canadian National Council members teach residents about their rights.
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This shit makes my blood boil!! I've had several confrontations with these Intelligarde rent- a - cops myself. They're c'ock sukkers. I encourage everyone from around the diaspora to inundate them with harrassing phone calls and emails. Intelligarde (416) 760 -0000 www.intelligarde.org
But let us see them without the badges and walkie talkies.
I know eh?? When I lived there they were like luxury units. Now, I dunno. I aint been inside for years. 