By R. Paul Dhillon
VANCOUVER – A B.C. Supreme Court has ordered a new election for Khalsa Diwan Society, Ross Street Gurdwara, after tossing out the membership and self-proclaimed victory without an election by members from within the old so-called Moderate slate at the oldest Sikh Society in North America.
The current executive has been embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the Sikh Youth group that has been complaining and subsequently taking to court the current slate of many irregularities to the membership.
Justice Stephen F. Kelleher said in a ruling released on Monday that “a new membership enrollment and a new election must take place.”
“The Executive has enrolled members without requiring adherence to the bylaws. The Executive has permitted persons to become members without physically attending at the office. That is exactly what the bylaws were amended to require, ” Justice Kelleher wrote in his decision.
The judge asked both sides to resolve the matter on their own or he will take further actions to remedy the situation.
“If they had done things fairly to start everything would have been dealt with and there would be no donations wasted,” the Vancouver Sikh Youth group said in a press release.
“We spent money from our own pockets and they use the Gurdawara donations. We must stop this for all future executives. Things must be done fairly. If seva is the intention then there is plenty to do and people can help out every day. They are more interested in getting their photos taken with Stephen Harper and sitting behind the stage every Sunday rather than clean or help in the kitchen. Their seva is leadership,” the Sikh Youth added.
“We want to thank everyone in the community for being patient. The Gurdwara will return to its glory days. We will fix the problems together. Along with better religious programs we will once again get the youngsters involved. Together we will make it happen,” they said.
Ross Gurdwara president Kuldip Singh Thandi told OMNI news about the cost of the current court and answered that it was about $80,000. But according to the Sikh Youth group, that figure is grossly understated as they believe the real number is close to $200,000.
“I don’t think an election will be held before one year – maybe end of 2016 or end of 2017,” Thandi told the media.
Also, the last litigation from the previous election this executive is estimated to have spent close to $450,000 and so far they have refused to show us the documents. This figure could be higher. The only way to get the truth is for their lawyer to show the receipts as to how much was charged last time and how much has been spent this time.
The new registration will take place followed by an election and that could take another 6-10 months. That means if the Executive appeals they will keep control for at least another 1 1/2 years.
“They will continue to use the donations (Golak) to pay for legal fees. We will pay for our lawyers from our pockets. They have nothing to lose by appealing. If they lose the appeal they will be exactly where they are. The only thing is the Gurdwara will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Sikh Youth Group said.
