Thirty years ago, Don Sampson linked arms with fellow residents of the Toronto Islands to block sheriffs who had come to evict them. Now, the trust representing islanders is evicting him from his family home of over 60 years.“I was on the bridge. I helped defend our homes. I had a role in fighting against our evictions,” Sampson said. “I voted for the trust and now I have to fight against the trust I helped set up.”At issue is the fact the deed to the family home was in his brother’s name. Sampson’s brother died two years ago and, unlike property in any other part of the city, the house cannot be transferred to him — despite the fact he’s named in his brother’s will — and must instead be sold by the trust to someone else.On Dec. 20, Sampson, 61, received a letter from a lawyer representing the Toronto Islands Residential Community Trust Corporation giving him less than three weeks to turn over the keys to the house he was born and raised in. “If the keys are not received on or before Jan. 7, 2019, the Trust will forcibly enter and change the locks,” reads the letter from Trust lawyer Bruce Lewis, obtained by the Star.The letter goes on to inform Sampson that the house must be emptied of all possessions — for Sampson, two generations of furniture and heirlooms — otherwise they will be cleared out for him. “The costs of the above, including all legal costs and a reasonable allocation of Trust administrative costs, will be deducted from the proceeds of sale,” Lewis states.Sampson was born in the house on Algonquin Island and lived there until he was 30, when he moved into the city to raise his kids. He moved back full time two years ago to take care of his dying brother, Bruce, and says he’s being turfed out by a system that was supposed to ensure that people who live on the Toronto Islands can stay there.“It’s terrible. Everybody knows I’ve been ...
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