Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, July 08, 2013

Elderly couple evicted from their home after 407 extension battle

Andy Kapostins showed up at his parents’ home late Saturday morning to collect personal belongings from the home he grew up in.

Soon it will be a pile of rubble.

After a more than two-year fight by Antons Kapostins, 90, to save the home from demolition to make way for the Highway 407 extension the battle ended when he and his wife were evicted Friday.

The irate Ajax resident says he’ll survive the loss. His parents, however, are devastated after the frail elderly couple was removed from the home for good by police, hours after Antons refused to leave.

“This is the end,” an emotional Andy said after speaking to two Durham Regional Police officers. “They wanted to finish their last days here. This was there home.”

Police told the younger Kapostins that family members would be allowed entry only once to retrieve any personal belongings.

“You can’t keep coming in and out of the house one at a time,” a female officer told Andy, who became visibly upset during their five-minute conversation.

Escorted out on a stretcher Friday, the elder Kapostins, 90, was still in hospital Saturday when the Star spoke with his son. Kapostins wife Gaida, 88, who was led from the home by police using a walker, was staying at a nearby residence.

It took police hours to get the couple to leave the home. Antons wouldn’t leave the house and said he wanted $9 million to do so, shooting down the latest offer from the Ministry of Transportation of $600,000.

According to CTV News, police told Antons they had to leave. His response to officers was, “if you want to take me out without paying me $9 million, you shoot me here.”

Andy, a truck driver who had just returned from a work trip to find his parents without their home, doesn’t understand how they can evict his parents without having reached a settlement.

“We haven’t seen a red cent and they’re kicking us out?” he said, visibly emotional. “It’s wrong.”

Served with an eviction notice ordered by the Superior Court, the battle to save the bungalow Antons built with his bare hands on their 13-acre property after buying it in 1962 is almost over.

Reaching a settlement is the last step that will end the family’s legacy on the property. However, Andy said if they don’t get a fair offer from the government for the remaining land (nearly 13 acres) they’ll keep it despite being told they won’t have road access to it.

One offer was about $400,000 for the expropriated land and $15,000 per acre for the rest of the property, Andy added.

“I don’t care,” he said. “We’ll hold onto the land if we have to. They won’t sell until they get what they feel they deserve.”

The ministry has said previously it has made repeated buyout offers, based on three independent property appraisals, for the land needed to reconstruct an interchange at Lake Ridge Rd. and Highway 401.

The last of 342 properties needed for the first phase of construction, which began this spring and is expected to be completed by 2014

The Kapostins purchased it in 1962 for $4,300.

Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Andrew Livingstone 

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