Dear Parents, Staff, Alumni and Friends of Vancouver College,

A number of you have called me to ask whether Vancouver College will be open in September. It will be and I am not going to register my son anywhere else. We do indeed have a plan that involves the support of parents, alumni and friends of Vancouver College to retain control of the school and to secure its future if the legal process does not work out our way. We have boys registered and teachers under contract for September and we will operate business as usual.

On Monday, Chief Justice Brenner of the BC Supreme Court accepted the undertaking by the liquidator of CBIC, the company in liquidation, to refrain from taking any further actions with respect to the ongoing operations of our school and St. Thomas More Collegiate while the Attorney General of BC applies to the Ontario court. He therefore decided it was not necessary to grant the application by the Attorney General of BC for an injunction to restrain such action.

In making his ruling, Chief Justice Brenner said that the Ontario Court must answer the question of whether the issue raised by the Attorney General of BC in the petition filed in the BC Supreme Court in March should be heard here or by the Ontario Court. You will recall that the Attorney General's petition asked the Court to determine whether the charitable purpose trusts for each school continue as a matter of BC trust law and whether new trustees should be appointed in order that the trust purposes, the operations of the schools, can be performed. We believe that the findings that each school is a charitable purpose trust provides a winning case for this petition, either in the BC Court or the Ontario Court.

The next step will be for the Attorney General to ask the Ontario Court to decide whether to hear the case or to agree that Chief Justice Brenner should hear it in Vancouver. Delay in the consideration of the Attorney General's petition may result. However, the Judge agreed to hold the July 22 date available in the BC Court if the Ontario judge agrees the matter can proceed here. Back in 1997, we had to request the same Ontario Court's permission for the trust and trustee issues to be dealt with in the BC Courts and that permission was granted.

I continue to believe in the merits of our legal case. However, we are determined to preserve Vancouver College and we will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. We thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Yours sincerely,

John H. Nixon (VC'69)
Chair, Board of Directors