Toronto bar owner battling terminal cancer served eviction notice for apartment she’s lived in for 23 years

Abra Shiner is seen at a Toronto hospital with her husband (left) and at her apartment of 23-years (right).

A 42-year-old woman has watched the sky soften into sunset from her fire escape in Toronto’s west end for nearly half of her life, but her time there is dwindling. She’s battling terminal breast cancer, and now an eviction notice.

“I don't understand how one human being could do this to another human being. This could actually kill me at this stage in my illness,” Abra Shiner, a longtime residential tenant and owner of a popular Toronto bar, told CTV News Toronto.

Shiner was served an eviction notice last month, instructing her to vacate by the end of March, after the Victorian multi-unit home she’s lived in for 23 years at Queen Street West and Dovercourt Road was sold to new owners.

The eviction was delivered less than a year after she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.

“It’s just a matter of time before it hits an organ we can’t cut out,” Shiner said about the illness spreading through her lymphatic system. Her ovaries are scheduled to be removed next week.

“They have given me five years, maybe 10,” she said.

For months she said she was managing, balancing doctors’ appointments, treatment, surgery and running Swan Dive, her beloved bar of seven years at Dundas Street West and Brock Avenue. Consistent with her more than two decade rapport, she said she has continued to pay her rent early or on time.

Abra Shiner is photographed at a Toronto hospital.

“This eviction has really thrown a monkey wrench in that. I was trying to have a good life for the last few years of it, trying to find some joy, but it’s hanging over my head,” she said, as her voice trembled into tears.

“I don’t want to have my entire life uprooted and destroyed. Displacing me from my home, I wouldn't be able to survive the stress of moving 23 years of life.”

Shiner will have an opportunity to present her case in front of the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) who will “consider the circumstances of both parties” when an eviction hearing takes place, the LTB told CTV News Toronto.

Abra Shiner is seen in her apartment of 23-years at Queen Street West and Dovercourt Road. “There is a legal framework for considering compassionate arguments, although it can be very difficult to override or overcome the interests of a land owner,” Brendan Jowett, a lawyer at Neighbourhood Legal Services, told CTV News Toronto. “But it can happen.”

CTV News Toronto reached out to the new property owners but did not receive a response. According to the eviction notice, one of the landlords’ children plans to move into Shiner’s unit. 

To communicate the severity of the situation, her general practitioner penned a letter to her landlords communicating the “detrimental effect” the eviction could have on Shiner’s health.

 

 

 

 

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“I strongly urge you to consider Abra’s current medical condition and the stress that this eviction notice is causing her. I urge you to allow her to remain in her home, as it will greatly aid in her recovery and provide her with a sense of stability during an already difficult time,” Dr. Ratika Birdi wrote in a letter to Shiner’s landlords on Jan. 13.

Beyond her doctor, more than 5,500 people have signed a petition supporting the withdrawal of Shiner’s eviction.

“I just want to stay home and try to finish my life happily,” she said.