A Parkdale tenant fighting eviction from her longtime home has died, the Bloor West-Parkdale Neighbourhood Voice has learned.

Melissa Bourque died in mid-February according to friends and supporters.

Bourque, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, was still facing eviction when she died, said Cole Webber from Parkdale Community Legal Services, which was assisting in her case.

“Melissa died under threat of eviction. Such are the conditions under which working-class people live,” said Webber, in a series of social media posts about Bourque’s life.

“That she died challenging those conditions demonstrates the profound dignity with which she lived.”

Along with fellow tenants Caesar Bonilla and Marko Mejia, Bourque received an eviction notice last year from her landlord after the property the three senior tenants lived in at 1336 King St. W. was put up for sale last year and conditionally sold.

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Speaking with the Neighbourhood Voice in September, Bourque described herself as a longtime resident of Parkdale, proud of her groundskeeping and gardening on the property. At the time of the interview she said she had been given four months to live.

The case landed with the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board, which stayed the tenants’ eviction notices pending a hearing. Prior the hearing, an ailing Bourque with the support of other tenants and Parkdale housing activists, confronted their landlord to protest the eviction notices, vowing they wouldn’t move from their home.

At the eviction hearing in late October, Bourque told the tribunal she had been pressured into signing an N11 mutual eviction notice despite not having anywhere else to go.

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The board has yet to issue a decision on the evictions, and, according to Webber, it appears the sale of the property has fallen through, as the property has been relisted.

Bonilla and Mejia continue to reside at 1336 King.