Defamation
“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”
—William Shakespeare, Othello

Contested elections often bring out the worse in people. Condo elections are no different.

Expect dirt
If you decide to run for a position on the board, expect the incumbents to throw mud at you. If you have not been a model condo resident, expect all transgressions, no matter how old or minor, to be dragged out of the closet and brought to the voters' attention.

It is one thing to throw mud but it is a far different thing indeed to have mud thrown back. So be prepared for it and remember the old saying:
Don't complain, don't explain.

A particularly sneaky trick
Until we stopped believing, God was watching over us, and we did right because He knew every wrong act, every word we said. Now everyone has an smart phone, so little gods who unlike Him, may make our private words public. Who can live with that kind of scrutiny?

In the spring of 2014, Michael, an owner at at Mississauga condo was asked by many of his neighbours to re-run for the board as they were unhappy with the manner that the corporation was run. Michael was previously the president of the board but resigned over concerns of kick backs and the board ignoring short-term rentals and unacceptable behaviour by some of these renters.

One of the board members was keeping him informed on what was going on and so Michael decided to run.

Time for a bit of background. A couple of years ago, when he was president, Michael was approached by a female security guard who made sexual advances towards him. Around the same time, one of the superintendents approached him to see if he would be interested in accepting bribes.

One of the directors owned four suites and was the rental agent for eleven other suites. These units were rented as short-term furnished apartments. This was against the corporation's declaration and there were serious problems with some of these renters, (drug dealing and prostitution), but the director was on the board solely to protect his business interests.

Michael discovered that the security guard and the superintendent were paid by the rental agent to put Michael in compromising situations and they recorded the two conversations. The rental agent was hoping for a little insurance to protect his rental business. That is when Michael resigned in disgust.

Two years later
Michael is a candidate for the board and so he asks for a copy of the owners register so he can contact the owners. His request was refused so he had a condo lawyer write a letter requesting a copy of the register.

The corporation's lawyer e-mails back saying that:

•	When Michael was previously on the board, he used corporation funds to refurbish his private condo unit.
•	He made sexual advances towards a female security guard, and
•	Michael was making false and slanderous accusations against the directors to the other residents.

The board would not give him a copy of the owners register but a director would keep the record and go with him from door to door when he went to talk to the owners and would listen in on the phone calls that he made to the owners.

Isn't that something. – editor

It gets dirtier
The board then goes door-to-door showing the owners the e-mail that their corporation lawyer sent to the Michael's lawyer and asking for their proxies.

Well now isn't this something. The directors are using the lawyer's e-mail, that contains defaming remarks that they supplied to him as “proof”, I suppose, that the remarks are true.

The result
Michael and the rest of his slate lost the election.


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