When housing justice takes a witchy turn

Bank Block is haunted.

At least, that’s what dozens of evicted residents, tenant activists and supporters gathered in downtown Ottawa on Sept. 26 to declare. In a public hexing that blended ancient pagan ritual with political protest, they called on spirits and deities to curse their former landlord and the stretch of buildings at the centre of one of the most contentious mass evictions in Ottawa’s history.

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The conflict began in 2023, when the landlord issued N13 eviction notices to tenants, many of whom had lived there for years. Dozens of people became suddenly at risk of homelessness. What followed was a battle between one of Ottawa’s most notorious landlords and an increasingly organized tenant movement. Tenants and their supporters were physically stopped, and the dispute worked its way through City Hall and the Landlord-Tenant Board.

Today, the buildings stand empty. The tenants may have lost the immediate battle to remain in their homes, but from that moment emerged a tenant movement that is reshaping Ottawa.

On the Harvest Moon, Sept 26, some of those former tenants and Centretown Tenant Power organized a ‘People’s Hexing of Bank Block,’ a gathering somewhere between political theatre and sincere spiritual practice. More than 50 tenant activists, neighbours, and some former residents assembled – many in dark clothing and carrying candles – to curse the stretch of buildings as they went up for sale.

“Come forth on this night. Before the stars, searing darkness that guards the pure gnosis of truth, I conjure you forth to burn magnificently before me,” Monsignor Babadoc recited while his partner held a burning runic symbol.

Monsignor Babadoc, a practicing hexer, led the spiritual elements of the evening. Fire was used, hexes were read, and a mock land deed was burnt and later passed around to be collectively destroyed. Jared, another practitioner, invoked hecate, a Greek deity associated with night, light, magic, witchcraft and the Moon, as a bundle of herbs were burnt.

“And I invoke thee, hear my plea. I beseech you to grant all of our wishes tonight. Join us in this glorious action…When their development ever take place, may any of the property companies’ deals be for not, and may their developments or deals wither and rot. As I speak these words, so shall it be,” Jared declared.

Emcee Morgan Mercury, a drag king, told Broadview that he saw ancient traditions of political theatre and religious practice being merged in the event.

“Theatre has always been used as a tool to help reflect back experiences to people, and making a big spectacle using props has always been part of religion as well as theatre.”

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But for Mercury, the usage of pagan and non-Christian symbolism was an important part of the theatre. “I think it’s really interesting to use these elements and other spirits that are kind of counter to the dominant culture of Christianity, and have that be reflective of a struggle against the dominant capitalist entities. In this case, landlords.”

“There’s a lot of empathy from people practicing more pagan spiritualism or worship goddesses like hecate, and the people that have experienced injustice and oppression at the hands of these larger systems – whether that be in housing or accessing the needs that they have,” they added.

The event ended with a burning of an N13 notice. Typically used to legally evict tenants, but criticized as the main facilitator of ‘renovictions’, N13’s were the first tools used at Bank Block to evict tenants.

Their use has surged in Ontario, and in Ottawa, ACORN, a community union representing low and moderate-income people, reported a 545 percent increase in the use of N13 notices between 2017 and 2022.

Many of those gathered had faced an N13 themselves. For tenants, the notices had come to represent a persistent threat to their homes. When I asked the crowd what their favourite moment of the night was, the overriding sentiment was the burning of the N13.

When they left, the sidewalk around the building was covered in chalk markings, dried wax drippings, and ash. The chalk markings were a mix of runes, curses, and the general proclamations one might find at a leftist protest. ‘People over profit’ and ‘Freeze the Rents’ combined with prayers to hecate.

The people gathered there were not, for the most part, devout pagans or Satanists — or even religious. By a show of hands, it was most people’s first ‘hexing.’ Most also told me they had never really engaged in anything ‘witchy.’

But it seems when the systems that are meant to protect people fail, when political leadership fails and when churches fail to meet the moment, some people are open to trying anything.

Hexing included.

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James Adair was a former intern at Broadview.