The allegations against the ousted executives, which has a number of Indo-Canadian including president Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi, 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.
SURREY – Kwantlen Polytechnic University has officially suspended the “money wasting” Student Association, which was unceremoniously kicked out of the office by students at a meeting last week which was interrupted with pepper spray and pulling of fire alarms.
Kwantlen officials confirmed they have suspended 13 students who are former members of the Kwantlen Student Association, reported the Now newspaper.
The suspensions, which allow for the students to attend classes and write exams, come after nearly 400 students voted unanimously to oust more than a dozen members of the KSA at a special general meeting on Nov. 30.
The meeting was delayed due to fire alarms and a pepper spray bomb being set off, allegedly by supporters of the rogue former association, which has numerous Indo-Canadians on it, including president Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi and director of finance Nina Sandhu.
The impeachments and suspensions come after allegations that several ousted members of the KSA have connections to Aaron Takhar, a former member of the student union who was allegedly involved in the misappropriation of funds when the Reduce All Fees student party was in office in 2005-06.
Kwantlen University also confirmed that they have launched an investigation into the months of turmoil at its student association.
A forensic audit, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, was ordered in 2006 by the KSA executive of the day. The audit found more than three-quarters of a million dollars in student funds were misspent.
The 50-page document said the bulk of the money – $620,000 – was allegedly loaned out by a former association executive as part of a high-risk investment, contrary to association rules.
Apex Communications, a Surrey-based company, was granted the loan during a closed-door meeting without any consultation with the student body.
The audit also revealed that $140,000 was paid to former executive members, including former RAF leader Takhar.
At the time, then chair of the KSA, Laura Anderson, said the audit results reinforced suspicions that money was mismanaged when the Reduce All Fees party was in office in 2005-06.
“It’s been a pretty long process because the financial records from 2006 were lost,” the philosophy student said at the time. The KSA later filed a lawsuit.
In an April 1 meeting this year, a motion was carried by the executives, some of whom allegedly have connections to Takhar, to instruct David Borins and his law firm to cease all activity pertaining to the RAF case until further notice.
The impeached members have said they are still the rightful board and claim the Nov. 30 meeting was not valid.
The ousted executive tried to organize a meeting, which spawned a small protest led by Takhar on their behalf on Dec. 5. In a press release, they said if the issue was not resolved that day, the “rightful board of directors” would take its fight to the B.C. Supreme Court.
Among those protesting along Takhar were Joey Atwal and Jaivin Khatri, against whom a 2008 B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit was dismissed in October.
Takhar, Atwal, Khatri and others were accused of making more than $140,000 in unsupported payments to party-affiliated executives and employees and more than $820,000 in high-risk loans and unapproved loans during their tenures as KSA board members in 2006.
The KSA claimed it dropped the lawsuit because of a low probability of winning and recouping money spent. However, former finance director Nina Kaur Sandhu and former director of operations Justine Franson are related to Takhar.
Takhar also made headlines in 2006 when he was arrested on drug charges after the RCMP say they found 170 marijuana plants in a car he had rented. His friend, 18- year-old Daljit Sandhu of Richmond, was discovered dead in the Nechako River near Vanderhoof after he drove a rented Ford Escape off a side-road and into the water.
Comments are closed.