|
|
Wright Enterprises-Community Spotlight
|
News Release
Nov. 1, 2016 |
|
|
"Lest We Forget..."
100-Year-Old Iris Canada Stands Her Ground Despite
Efforts To Evict Her By Peter Owens
By Anh Lę
Special Feature to W.E. Community Spotlight
|
|
|
Iris Canada leaves court battle in April 2016 with supporters including her name sake niece Iris Merriouns and Bishop Alfred Johnson of the historic Jones Memorial Church in San Francisco.
|
What will happen to Iris Canada?
Her attorney, Dennis Zaragoza, went to San Francisco Superior Court on September 20, to obtain a stay of eviction for Canada. The stay of eviction granted by the Court would be effective until 5 pmon September 27.
Peter Owens, one of the three co-owners of the building where Ms. Canada lives, has been trying to evict her from her home.
Iris Canada, a 100-year old African American woman who has lived at her apartment in San Francisco for 40 years, continues to battle efforts to evict her by Owens. Canada, who lives at 670 Page Street, moved to San Francisco with her husband from Texas and worked as a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital.
This reporter reached out to Owens to get his perspective. Owens stated on September 22, "When we bought the building in 2002, we granted her, completely voluntarily and free of charge, a Life Estate right to live out her life for $700/month because it was the right thing to do. We are not evicting Ms. Canada. We have not wavered from that commitment."
The story is almost like that of David and Goliath.
Peter Owens, his wife Carolyn Radisch, and his brother Steven Owens, bought the apartment building, as a "tenancy-in-common" (T.I.C), and tried to convert the other apartment units into condominiums. Owens and his family have resided in Vermont and New Hampshire. Owens once worked as a planner at the Presidio Trust in San Francisco. His most recent job was as Director of the Office of Economic Development in Burlington, Vermont. He resigned from that post in April 2016.
Owens hired the powerful law firm of Zacks, Freedman, and Patterson. Andrew Zacks' law firm is well known in San Francisco for representing landlords and evicting tenants. Mark Chernov of the law firm has been representing Owens at court sessions.
After a series of attorneys and even periods of time without the assistance of an attorney, Canada is now represented by Dennis Zaragoza, a Latino attorney.
Judge A. John Robertson II has been presiding over the case.
On August 9, Robertson ruled that Canada must pay Owens the $164,000 which he has been demanding from her, to pay his own lawyers' fees.
Following an August 12 court session, Iris Canada's supporters went to the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street to hold a press conference. Rev. Amos Brown, minister at Third Baptist Church and president of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP, condemned Owens' ongoing efforts to evict Canada.
After the press conference, Canada's supporters went to District Attorney George Gascon's office, to demand that he file elder abuse charges against Owens. They demanded to meet with Gascon or an assistant district attorney. The District Attorney's media spokesperson, Maxwell Szabo , said that they could not meet with Gascon or any assistant district attorney.
At the court hearing on August 17, Judge Robertson announced that he had made a tentative decision to deny another motion by Zaragoza on Canada's behalf, a motion regarding jurisdiction of the case. Zaragoza had filed a motion arguing that the case should be handled by the federal court, rather than the San Francisco Superior Court.
This case involves other issues besides Owens' demand that Canada pay $164,000 for his own lawyers' fees.
|
|
 |
| Supporters of Iris Canada Hit the Streets of San Francisco September 27, 2016. |
|
Owens also demands that Canada sign papers to allow him to turn the apartment units into condominiums. Canada's niece, Iris Merriouns, states that Owens is violating the law because he has not followed the "first right of refusal" requirement, to allow Canada to purchase the apartment unit.
Owens had also demanded of the court, and Judge Robertson had ordered in previous rulings, that Canada live at her apartment by herself, with no other occupant, even a family member or a caregiver.
When asked why he continued his efforts to get her evicted even though he claimed he cared about her well being, on July 23rd Owens said, "That is absolutely true. We care about Iris and we want to see her back in her home. We have never wanted Iris Canada's home, We have never wanted Iris Canada's money." (Click Here for Complete Article @ PRLOG.ORG)
September 27, 2016 Protest in Support of Iris Canada.
Other Housing News... Oakland Landlord says "No" to "Mega Evictor" Moniker
|
|
|
CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE DETAILS
Now thru November 12th! |
Every 28 Hours is a series of one-minute plays written by 90 contributing artists from across the nation who focus on the widely shared and contested statistic that every twenty-eight  hours a black person in the United States is killed by a vigilante, security guard, or the police.
Inspired by Black Lives Matter, this national project was co-created and first produced by Dominic D'Andrea of the One Minute Play Festival and Claudia Alick of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival after the killing of Michael Brown, a young African American, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014.
The Bay Area production of Every 28 Hours opens Friday, October 21st at PianoFight, 144 Taylor Street in San Francisco, for a four-week run October 21-November 12.
The local project was spearheaded by FaultLine Theater which formed a collaboration with A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, Campo Santo, Crowded Fire Theater and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre to mount the production in the Bay Area.
Directors include:
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's Artistic Director, Steven Anthony Jones,
Donald Lacy, Luna Malbroux, Mina Morita and Tyrone Davis.
Each event is followed by facilitated discussions led by local activists and artists about this critical Civil Rights moment in America.
###
REDUX REMINDER.... Prophet Ahead of the Times.... Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira's "Cops & Robbers" directed by Ami Zins and Lew Levinson--- Two years before Ferguson, Piper wrote "Cops and Robbers." Before #Blacklivesmatter, Piper and the Zinns worked together to get the message out for America to address police involved shootings and the culture of the silent blue wall.
|
|
|
Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira of musically acclaimed "Flipsyde" performs his one-man prophetic show "Cops and Robbers" directed by Ami Zins and Lew Levinson.
|
Newsweek Magazine
by Sean Elder
KQED Radio Hosted by Joshua Johnson
Cops and Robbers: violence and Moral Culpability in Oakland
(Review by Cy Ashley Webb 8-19-14)
Had we listened, where would we be now? Just Sayin'!
###
Let Healing Begin...
Congratulations Sherri Young & the African American Shakespeare Company for another great season...
|
|
| Click Image for More Details. |
|
|
| Click Image for More Details. |
 \ FRED GRAY
DEFENDED ROSA PARKS
|
|
|
|
