The allegations against the ousted executives, which included a number of Indo-Canadians, ranged from the board had raised their pay by 40 per cent, spent $100,000 on a concert by UK artist Jay Sean and spent thousands of dollars on legal fees. The 352-to-0 vote ended with the removal of 12 council members, including president Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi and director of finance Nina Sandhu. None of the under-fire council members were in attendance.
SURREY – Kwantlen Polytechnic University students voted to remove 12 members of their student council at a wildly disrupted special general meeting Wednesday afternoon which saw fire alarms being pulled and pepper spray being used to try to stop a quorum of 250 students needed to hold the meeting.
Interim directors will be appointed and a new election called in the new year after, it was announced.
Scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., the meeting was delayed for more than an hour after someone pulled the fire alarm and a hallway full of people was pepper sprayed, reported the Leader newspaper.
The meeting finally resumed, and after the fire alarm was pulled a second time, the vote finally proceeded.
More than 350 students – well above the minimum quorum of 250 – voted for the removal of five executives and eight voting council members (one of whom has already resigned).
The Special General Meeting (SGM) was called after a 277-name petition was presented earlier in November, demanding the removal of the five executives and eight other voting council members from office, placing them in bad standing so they may never run for the KSA again, and to install a new set of bylaws.
Much of the opposition began after it was discovered the association had put a lawsuit involving former director Aaron Takhar and others on hold. At the time, it was revealed at least two of the newly elected directors are related to Takhar – his sister Justine Franson and cousin Nina Kaur Sandhu. Franson has since resigned. The longstanding lawsuit, which involved the alleged mismanagement of more than $1 million in students fees, was subsequently dismissed without costs.
There are also allegations the current executives raised their pay by 40 per cent, spent $100,000 on a concert and spent thousands of dollars on legal fees.
Prior to the SGM, the KSA’s director of finance Sandhusaid the meeting was invalid for several reasons, but, in respect to the students who showed up, hoped to have an open forum to hear their concerns.
Sandhu said she and other elected directors spent Tuesday handing out pamphlets and speaking to students on campuses.
But opponents fired back at Sandhu, saying the council members over exceeded their spending authority.
“One glance at the financial records and it will tell you all you need,” said Arzo Ansary, speaking on behalf of the opposition group. “They spent $120,000 on a concert on campus. They’ve gone over by 500 per cent their legal spending limit.”
The 352-to-0 vote ended with the removal of 12 council members, including president Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi and director of finance Nina Sandhu. None of the under-fire council members were in attendance.
