TRANSCRIPT

AS - Ada Summers, interviewee / LR - Lyn Royce, interviewer

AS: But yeah, so that's the only time I... we really ran into it. And then, um, when I married and moved back to St Catharines; and I never had any problem until we moved into the apartment on, uh, Ontario Street. We ran into it.

LR: And what happened then?

AS: Well, my husband's colouring made him look like he was French.

LR: Oh!

AS: And he used to play poker with this group of... all the guys - Harry and all them used to... not Harry so much, but some of the other ones, his brothers now... - they used to always meet together at this 1 place and they always played poker every Saturday or whatever, and there was this woman, she was French, and she used to be in with the group playing and she lived in the lower level of the apartment building at 245 Ontario, uh - never forgot the number. So anyways, he was saying 'Oh, my wife's pregnant again,' he said. 'We're going to have to get out of that apartment, it's going to be too small, with, you know, 3 kids now...' So, uh, she said 'Oh, the apartment above me is empty - here's the name and number. She gave him the number and stuff, and 'Go see about it.' So I'd love to have you upstairs with me. Your kids are so great... and all that stuff. So he did and he went and he paid the 1st month deposit, the whole thing, you know, and it wasn't until after we moved in that we got a threatening letter that we were '...lowering the standards of the business of the pizza place and the Golden Pheasant Hotel that was right across the street. And that there was a house at such and such and such a place that would be suitable for us to live...' and this kind of thing. And I'll never forget the guy that had the little store beside it - Jack Woods - he was just livid. He went to bat with us and he was saying 'No Way!' Oh, you shoulda heard him, so, yeah. So what happened the whole thing ended up going to City Council. Helen Smith, the one in the hat, and some of the other church members all went to City Council and that's when it, the Bylaw was passed about discrimination. Yeah. And this is why my son just read it in a book on Human Rights and was questioning 'cause he saw our name and everything there. And I said 'but I've told you the...' But when they're younger, they hear it but they don't hear it. You know. So... And it's not a subject you bring up every day... as your kids are growing up, you know. So that's why I gotta find that one. But, to make a long story short, when we, fought and went to City Council and the Labour Rights [sic] committee and everything, and it was passed, so she had to... the landlady had to reject her notice. And that we would live there as long as we chose to live there. And the retraction had to be put in the paper. And then after that, we gave our notice and moved.

LR: Good plan...

AS: And that was the only time we ever ran into it; where the housing was concerned. Yeah. Because even when we were looking for another place, um what was his name, um,... Borobee John [sp?]... oh, he was head of the Human Rights all of Ontario, he was the one who said, okay, when you are looking for another home, he said you go to the house and they tell you it's rented you have another white couple go after you to see if it's not rented; this kind of thing. So we had it all planned when we went to see this place on Maple Street and we went in and just like that we got the place, and then that meant... we didn't have to go through any of that. You know; so, yeah...