SURREY - After tensions came to an all-time high at Kwantlen Polytechnic University last week when a special meeting was called to impeach more than a dozen members of the Kwantlen Student Association, those who were ousted say they are still on the executive.

Nearly 400 students voted unanimously to oust the members last Wednesday, Nov. 30.

Nina Kaur, who was the chairperson of the KSA board before the vote, said she and several others have been suspended from the university.

University officials couldn't confirm or deny the suspensions, but did say an investigation in the matter is underway.

The battle consuming the student body has included lawsuits, allegations of corruption, and conflict of interest that have their roots in a previous board from a few years back.

The impeached officials sent out a press release Dec. 4 saying 400 students signed a petition recognizing the meeting was to be held on Dec. 5 at 3 p.m.

The press release sent by those who were ousted called the Nov. 30 meeting "purported" and "botched."

"We sent an official complaint to the university before our supporters were pepper sprayed and barred from entering that meeting. The university did nothing to protect us. Shockingly, they responded by banning our councillors from campus altogether, changing the locks on our office doors and handing the keys to the opposition group purportedly appointed on Nov. 30," said Sean Birdman in a press release.

He is the KSA president voted out by students on Nov. 30.

The press release said if the issue was not resolved Monday, the "rightful board of directors" would take its fight to the B.C. Supreme Court.

The press release said the meeting was to recognize the Nov. 30 meeting as "null and void and to remove the students who stormed and ransacked the KSA offices last Wednesday purporting to be newly appointed directors."

The Dec. 5 meeting didn't materialize. A witness at the school said that at 3: 45 p.m. Monday, a group of about 20 people were protesting in the university's courtyard, led by former student Aaron Takhar. He was elected to a KSA executive while a student at Kwantlen and has ties to some of those just ousted.

"We're here because they're not able to speak for themselves," Takhar said.

Interim KSA director of external affairs Arzo Ansary said the current board cancelled the room booking for the Dec. 5 meeting.

"Their meeting is out of order," she said. Ansary said the ousted members claimed the Nov. 30 meeting was invalid because they were the ones who were supposed to choose the meeting time and date. Ansary said the KSA board wouldn't set a date for the meeting, which allowed for petitioners to set the date themselves - and they did so on Nov. 30.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University president John McKendry said he is "not surprised" at the events that unfolded on Nov. 30, which included pepper spray being set off and the fire alarm being pulled twice.

"We anticipated disruption from a group not willing to go on their own," McKendry said in an email to the Now.

McKendry said the impeachment of several KSA members was to be expected.

"Students have spoken, and we look forward to them making some positive steps forward.

"The university is mostly concerned with the safety, security and well-being of the students. Allegations as such are a serious matter and the university takes them very seriously."

The Society Act, not the university, governs the KSA, like all student unions.

But McKendry did say the university has asked the Ministry of Advanced Education to review the act and make changes that would allow for the ministry to step in if there were allegations of misappropriation of funds.

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