Marie Antoinette explains real estate to us.

Minister of Public Housing France-Helene Duranso has caused discontent among housing committees by advising tenants to become landlords. Her draft legislation aims to make it easier to refuse a rent to owner session.

In response to the minister's criticism, she said a tenant who wants to manage their home "needs to invest in the property and accept the risks involved".

Marie Antoinette's real estate justification for her inappropriate words is that she was "in the legal and economic description of things." Inappropriate statements are a reflection of reality. After all, what would be the "legal description" of this? The Civil Code is clear: a tenant has a right to occupy a dwelling; he has''s right to renew his lease; he has the right to refuse a rent increase. And the tenant currently has the ability to transfer his right, his lease, to a new tenant.

The Minister is not speaking for the law; rather, she is trying to change the terms without thinking about their underlying meaning. Real estate is not property like any other: Canadian law recognizes that it comes with rights attributable to whoever benefits from its use, because housing is a vital need that cannot be completely subordinated to the dark forces of the market that create inequality. This is where the application of the "economic description" to which the Minister refers is necessary.

Capital creates capital. Buying''real estate creates profitable capital, accompanied of course by risks, but in a context where risk is minimized, more related to the contingency of bad tenants than to the uncertainty of appreciation. The glaziers of the real estate agent minister prevent her from considering property management in a general context of social inequality. Rent protection is a temporary measure, and the balance of power is almost always on the side of the landlord, the holder of financial and informational resources.

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A tenant unfamiliar with his rights and occupying a dwelling about whose past he knows nothing must often rely on the good faith of the owner. Unless the lease is transferable. A conveyance is merely a means of accomplishing a weak''protected purpose in the Civil Code, namely to protect the rental price from sharp increases. Other means can be used to achieve this goal, such as strengthening the obligation to include the last rent paid in the lease and making it easier to object to increases or to establish a national registry. Otherwise, increases work as a mechanism to keep backwardation at bay. All that is required is a passive tenant who is not familiar with his rights or interested so that the landlord can raise the rent as he pleases, with no opportunity for a future tenant to find a lost equilibrium. The minister is not describing the facts; she is offering her interpretation. And that interpretation makes it clear that she does not believe in the defense''housing rights.

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