North Vancouver hostel owner Emily Yu stood before Justice Barry Davies in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday and demanded more time, claiming she was being treated unfairly by her strata corporation and the court.
Justice Davies’ response: “When is it going to come to an end?”
Yu had been found in contempt of court after ignoring a judgment ordering her to stop using her North Vancouver townhome for short-term rentals.
She was later sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine to the courts and $52,100 in legal costs to her strata. Yu missed the payment deadlines for both.
On Wednesday, Justice Davies cut off Yu’s attempts to reintroduce old arguments in her case and acknowledged the only course of action was for her to pay her outstanding fines.
“This isn’t a free ride. You have an obligation to the court. You have an obligation to the strata corporation,” Justice Davies told Yu.
“You have completely failed to meet these obligations,” he added.
Despite Yu’s claims that she was not ready to address why she hadn’t paid her contempt of court fine, she later revealed she had a certified cheque for the full amount in her possession.
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After Justice Davies’ inspected the cheque, he told Yu that the cheque would remain in the possession of the court. Yu was reminded she still owes her strata corporation its legal costs and must pay it when she returns to court on Dec. 9.
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Yu’s neighbour Dan Goldberg expressed frustration with the court proceedings and payment extension.
“I have no confidence that Ms. Yu will ever come to terms with this or acknowledge responsibility,” said Goldberg.
“I think that the justice was very clear with her when he said there was nothing left to do here except to pay the money,” he added.
As Yu exited the Vancouver law courts, she refused to answer any questions about the day’s court proceedings.
Instead of commenting on her case, Yu demanded an apology from Global News for spreading allegedly false statements by her neighbours.
Yu took exception with a Global News report about claims that neighbours had spoken to short-term tenants leaving her townhome a short period after she was found in contempt of court.
In the report, Global News spoke with Yu who denied the claims in a phone interview.
The strata corporation might have little choice but to demand the court force the sale of Yu’s home if she fails to reimburse its legal costs.
When Yu was asked directly if she intended to pay the $52,100 to the strata she declined to answer.
“I don’t want to talk about the case now,” she said.
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