The board 
“These office-seekers are a curse to the country; no sooner was my election certain, than I became the prey of hundreds of hungry persistent applicants for office, whose highest ambition is to feed at the Government's crib.”
—Abraham Lincoln

The condominium has 897 units in three high-rise buildings and had an income of over $4 million a year. It has a five-member board of directors.

For this entire ten-year period, the sitting board faced a series of requisition meetings. The board was deadlocked by these political battles lead by different factions struggling for control that was made worse by a refusal by many owners to face the financial and political crisis’s that was rocking the corporation and the determination by some to make money off the corporation.

Larry Lee
In December 1999, Larry Lee and two others were successful in requisitioning an owners meeting to replace the board. Larry and his two confederates became directors and being in the majority, they controlled the board. Larry was appointed president and he assumed the property manager’s position.

In 2001, as his corruption was being uncovered, Mr. Lee unsuccessfully tried to replace three of the directors at the AGM. Instead, Mr. Lee and his remaining sidekick lost their positions on the board.

Anver Karim
Mr. Karim was on the board of directors from 1997 to 1999. While he was a director, Anver persuaded the board to sign a five-year contract with AK Vending to supply the washers and dryers for the laundry rooms in the three buildings.

Later, the board learnt that Anver Karim was the owner of AK Vending. They had the corporation lawyer write him a letter saying that this was a conflict of interest.

Replacing carpets
In 2001 and 2002, the corporation had a special assessment to pay for extremely expensive construction projects that were mandated by several city work orders.

The property manager proposed that $300,000 of the money raised by the special assessment to pay for the construction work be used to replace the hallway carpets.

The majority of the board voted to buy the carpeting. Due to the fighting over this issue, the board majority started making decisions outside the board meetings.

Another split in the board
As a result of being froze out of the decision-making, Aimin Li, a minority director, talked with a couple of owners about the difficulties the corporation was in and formed a political group to oppose the majority directors.

They were successful in getting a special meeting to replace the entire board but were not successful in getting a quorum at that meeting.

At the 2002 AGM, two new directors joined Aimin Li on the board. Now Aimin Li belonged to the majority of the board. They voted to replace the property management company who recommended that the board use part of the special assessment money to buy the carpeting.

Another division on the board
The board once again split due to unconfirmed rumours that one director was getting $2,000 a month kickback from the new property management company and that he had is unit renovated for free.

This director also wanted to cancel the contract with the contractor that was renovating the parking garage.
 
The return of Anver Karim
After a director resigned in 2003, Anver Karim was appointed to the open position on the board. However, Aimin Li demanded an assurance that Karim would cancel his coin laundry contract with the corporation as a condition of his returning to the board, as this would be a serious conflict of interest. A verbal assurance was given.

However, once he was on the board, Anver Karim did not cancel the contract. In response, three of the directors passed a resolution removing Karim from the board and replacing him with Hameed Shah.

The lawyers battle
Prior to the 2003 AGM, Silva Gnanapandithen, one of the directors, hired Brian Horlick. Mr. Horlick gave the opinion that the board did not have the authority to remove Anver Karim from the board and therefore Anver Karim was still a director, not Hameed Shah.

Based on this legal opinion, three directors met and passed a resolution deposing Aimin Li as president and named Silva president, Anver Karim treasurer and Fareed vice-president.

These three directors also passed a resolution giving themselves signing authority for the corporation’s bank accounts.

Freezing the accounts
The signing officers then gave Brian Horlick a $20,000 cheque for a retainer. Once this cheque was cashed, Mr Horlick froze the corporation’s bank accounts.

With the bank accounts frozen, the corporation could not pay the utilities, insurance premiums, employee wages or any of its bills.

In response, Aimin Li hired Elia & Associates to assist him and his two directors in battling against Silva and his two directors.

At this point the corporation had two sets of directors, both represented by law firms, who claimed to be the majority of directors. They were:

Board members	Board members
Amin Li	Silva Gnanapandithen
Tariq Kayani	Anver Karim
Hameed Shah	Fareed
Lawyer	Lawyer
Elia & Associates	Brian Horlick

Elia commenced a court application to have the board membership determined and to have the bank accounts unfrozen. During the litigation, the bank agreed to pay the corporation’s utility bills and the employee wages. (There were no signatures on the cheques because it was not clear who could sign on the corporation’s behalf.)

First administrator
After along legal battle, both sides agreed to install Robert Gardner as an interim administrator. The administrator fired the property management company and hired a new property manager.

During the summer of 2003, Mr. Gardner wrote two reports giving suggestions for required changes at YCC #42.

2003 AGM
Silva Gnanapandithen resigned as director and Anver Karim did not run for reelection while Hameed Shah and Chouldry Latif were elected.

So after forcing the corporation into a long and very expensive battle for control of the board, the two main protagonists just stepped aside.

The winners?
The two law firms as the legal bills for both sides totaled over $200,000.

The losers?
The losers were the condo owners who picked up the tab.

A change of mind?
Shortly after the 2003 AGM, Silva started another requisition to remove the entire board of directors. That requisition failed.

In June 2005, Silva led another group of owners in an attempt to requisition a special meeting to remove the board of directors. That attempt also failed.

While the board of directors and the various political factions battled away, the corporation was sinking in a red sea of debt and neglect.

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