June 13, 2025
Another week, another embarrassing stunt by a handful of slumlord defenders outside Brampton City Hall. Armed with megaphones and misinformation, Azad Goyat and his ally Raj Ghuman have continued their campaign to torpedo Brampton’s Residential Rental Licensing (RRL) pilot — a program designed to hold dangerous, exploitative landlords accountable.
Let’s be clear: their protests aren’t about policy. They’re about self-interest.
Azad Goyat: Two-Time Failed Candidate, Self-Declared Landlord Lobbyist
Azad Goyat has run for public office twice in Brampton, each time on a platform that seemed more committed to defending negligent landlords than serving residents. Both times, voters rejected him — including in his own poll. Now, he’s taken his political failures and built a public pressure campaign grounded in half-truths and performative outrage.
Raj Ghuman, also part of this so-called “landlord rights” movement, is no stranger to controversy himself. Together, their goal is clear: create confusion, undermine enforcement, and maintain the conditions that have let unsafe and overcrowded rentals flourish, especially in neighbourhoods filled with students and new Canadians.
They know what they’re doing. They know it’s wrong. And it’s time to name it: it is illegal to operate unlicensed, unsafe rental units in Brampton. Period.
There Is No Fee. There Is No Excuse.
Goyat’s argument that licensing is too costly is also outdated — deliberately so. The 2025 City budget waived all Residential Rental Licensing fees. That’s right: zero cost. No administrative barriers. Just a requirement to meet basic safety standards and provide decent housing.
Legitimate landlords have nothing to fear from the RRL pilot. Only those who’ve been cutting corners and profiting off the backs of vulnerable renters stand to lose — and that’s exactly why this program exists.
Council’s Pilot Is Smart Policy — Built on Facts, Not Fear
Since its launch, the RRL pilot has resulted in the inspection of thousands of properties, the discovery of life-threatening code violations, and the issuance of hundreds of licences. City Council’s approach has been anything but reckless. It’s been careful, phased, and responsive:
• Launch in five wards with high complaint volumes.
• Pause and improve intake after initial feedback.
• Waive all fees and expand outreach to non-English-speaking landlords.
• Target problem units and ensure legal ones are protected.
This is governance by iteration — and it’s working.
50 Protesters Don’t Speak for 800,000 Residents
Each week, roughly 50 men gather with posters and megaphones, pretending to be the voice of Brampton’s housing sector. But let’s be honest — 50 angry men do not represent the 800,000 residents of Brampton, most of whom are calling for stronger action against illegal, overcrowded, and dangerous rental units.
The vast majority of Brampton residents support the City’s crackdown on slumlords. Students, women, international tenants — they’ve been sounding the alarm for years. And now, finally, the City is acting.
This protest movement isn’t grassroots. It’s a manufactured pressure campaign by two failed politicians-turned-landlord-lobbyists who have everything to lose when the rules are actually enforced.
The Bottom Line
Azad Goyat and Raj Ghuman aren’t champions of fairness. They’re defenders of a broken system that places profit over people and allows illegal rentals to go unchecked.
City Council has shown backbone by moving forward with a program that protects tenants, weeds out unsafe units, and rewards landlords who follow the law. That’s the story here — not another tired sidewalk spectacle.