Pakistan-Canada Association loses second court bid over Surrey property

The Pakistan-Canada Association has lost a second court challenge involving a property it owns at 12057-88 Avenue in Surrey’s Kennedy Heights. B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Walker dismissed the association’s petition in Vancouver on Oct. 15. The property has been leased to Great Light Healing Ministries Int’l: City of Faith since July 2013.

Walker found that the association had not shown Great Light’s failure to correct the building’s illegal construction was a fundamental breach or a breach of a true condition of the lease that would entitle the association to terminate it. He said the situation was the same as in an earlier case before Justice F. Matthew Kirchner. Walker cited Kirchner’s observation that Great Light’s refusal to correct the problem might allow the association to end the lease, but that point had not been reached: Great Light had not refused to fix the issue and was looking for ways to comply.

In 2024, Kirchner, also sitting in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, dismissed the association’s application for a writ of possession for the same property. The association argued that Great Light fundamentally breached an implied lease term in 2022 by renovating without the necessary building permits or authorization from the City of Surrey. It also said Great Light extended the building beyond the property line and encroached on a neighbouring railway right-of-way, exposing the association to a possible trespassing claim.

Kirchner concluded that even if Great Light breached an implied term of the lease, the breach, while serious, was neither fundamental nor a breach of a true condition that would let the association terminate the lease. He dismissed the petition for possession but said the association remained free to pursue other remedies.