EVICTION

About a week before the movie was shut down, the local producer was given paperwork from Capital Films showing that a wire transfer was underway so she paid everyone's salaries and before the transfer went through the funds were stopped so she was stuck footing the bill. Her company is Buffalo Gals. I think that most or all of the films made in Winnipeg are in partnership with Buffalo Gals Films.

Meanwhile many other people weren't getting paid their salaries, housing, car rentals and per diem while everyone was waiting and hoping for Capital Films to get additional financing.

So our own housing has not been paid since May 5th. Without our knowledge they were negotiating to allow us to stay a little while longer in time to pack up our stuff. So on Thursday we were informed that we had to move about by Saturday afternoon at 3pm. The realtor said there weren't places available for us so we should find a hotel. We looked around for suites and tried to pack up quickly. We offered to pay one more week out of our own pocket but they said no not unless we paid the back rent owed to them. I did some research and found out that without a court order they couldn't physically remove us. I called the police and they said that they never remove people from their homes but if anyone tried to remove us we should call them and they would try to prevent harm. Also they wouldn't be allowed to change the locks or enter the home. They would have to go to court next week (Monday is a holiday) to get paperwork that could be served to us by a sherrif. There were available court appointments on May 28th. We were asking to stay until May 24th.

I called the realtor and was told that I was wrong about that and in fact we would be removed. I stood my ground and said well we're packing, I did this two months ago and it took me a week and we will leave in a week. Two days is not enough notice to a family with toddlers. If you have a problem with that you can file for paperwork to have us leave and give that to us next week. However, I think it would be a better deal for you to accept rent from us instead of having us stay here for free. We went back and forth a few times with her insisting that we would be removed and with me asking who would remove us? Not the police, the sherrif or their friends could remove us.

They called one of the producers on the film who implored me to find other accomodations (I was spending a lot of time trying to find suitable accomodations for four). When it was clear to him that I wasn't planning to back down, he called the Residential Housing Board himself and found out that I was right they couldn't remove us that quickly. A woman named Giselle called Sue the realtor and explained it to her. Then she called me - with a pleasant voice this time, to say "Good news! You can stay and we'll accept the rent from you. I will inform the owner of this new development." Of course I'm sure that she's livid. But she is asking us to leave out of spite, we don't owe her money and we offered to pay one weeks rent for one weeks additional stay.

So now our girls can finish their time in school and we can leave on May 24th to go to Edmonton.