English ousted as Wellington Court language dispute escalates

A battle between English and Mandarin-speaking condo owners in Richmond, B.C. is heating up.

An agreement to hold strata council meetings at Wellington Court in English has been overturned.

The dispute got so heated, personal and nasty in the comment section of the GoFundMe page set up to finance a human rights battle over the language dispute the page was pulled down by the site.

'Outsiders' demanded to understand strata meetings

When the complex's council decided to hold council meetings in Mandarin only a year ago, four homeowners filed a human rights complaint.

The English speakerssaidthey feltunwelcome and are being "racially discriminated against" by the new council elected July 2015, whichconductedall business in Mandarin only.

Andreas Kargut, owner of one of the 54 units in the Heather Street building, said he felt like an "outsider."

Things seemed to improve, but this week took a turn again.

"This has been very hard on myself and my family," said Kargut.

Hard work to compromise, ignored

Wellington Court homeowners worked hard to come up with a compromise since a dust-up over a Mandarin-only meeting planned last December 8, he said.

They were told that goingforward English would be spoken at meetings and a translator would be there for the one person who spoke only Mandarin.

Then during anannual general meeting on Aug. 29 a new motion surprised English speakers in the building, said Kargut.

The use ofEnglish was voted down.

"Usually anything to do with money [strata members]just go No! No! No! No!" said Kargut, but this time the vote was no for English-speaking meetings.

"It's telling us that we wish to make sure that not everybody understands what is going on," said Kargut who is not giving up saying he has the right to understand the decisions made in the building where he owns a home.

So now the case moves forward to the human rights tribunal, where Kargut expects there will be a push to dismiss the entire case.

But if that does not happen the case will be heard by November.

CBC attempts to contact the Strata Council president met no reply.