Tenants of pot shop evicted from south-end dispensary

CTV Ottawa: Pot shop shut down CTV's Joanne Schnurr explains why for the first time in Ottawa a pot shop was shut down last night- and a dispute with a landlord.

A pot shop in south end Ottawa was shut down last night. The tenant evicted and the locks changed. But that didn't stop someone from going back in.

Today the bailiff was back at Cannagreen on Roydon Place tacking up this notice and changing the locks again. It's the first pot shop in the city to face an eviction notice.

With the Ottawa Police there for back up, bailiff Douglas Specht was back today to the Cannagreen medical dispensary, putting up a notice to terminate the lease on this property.

“The landlord terminated the lease,” Specht said, “and when he terminates the lease, there's no relationship between the tenant and landlord anymore and they chose to break back in which is trespassing.”

This was the second notice served to the operators of this pot shop. The first notice went up 11 p.m last night telling the tenants their lease was terminated. The locks were changed. Shortly after that someone broke back in.

A customer at the Hobby Shop next door snapped a photo of police arresting a man earlier this morning for trespassing.

The dispensary has been contentious since it opened in the quiet strip mall a few months ago; operating through a peep hole cut in plywood after someone rammed a truck through the front window. It's been held up at knife point.  But still, they were operating today until police arrived.

‘It’s been a pain,” says Bill Chappell, the owner of the Hobby Centre next store, “I understand they are making moves to legalize marijuana but this whole thing was sketchy from the start.”

Customers of the Hobby Centre aren't sad to see the dispensary go.

“The clientele was definitely different than what I’m used to seeing around here,” says customer Wes Von Papineau, “not friendly, very secretive and you never knew what was happening in the parking lot.”

But one man, who walked up to the storefront to read the sign on the door, had a different opinion about its closure, “Yeah, it’s frustrating,” he said.

The owners of Cannagreen have five days to remove all their stuff from the premises.  The owners of the property, Anuk Holdings Limited, couldn't be reached for comment.