Earlier today, all sides wrapped up their arguments in our court case against Kingswood Capital’s takeover of MEC. The judge will announce her decision tomorrow at 9:30am, Vancouver Time.

What we originally thought would be one day in court extended into four days. The Save MEC lawyers argued that co-ops are different from other businesses, built and owned by members, and that the members should have a say in what happens. The MEC and RBC lawyers argued that the sale to Kingswood was better for the creditors, like the bank, and that members don’t have any special interest in what happens. MEC and RBC’s lawyers essentially argued we should be happy that we’ll still be able to shop somewhere. They missed the co-op point. 

We don’t know how the judge will rule tomorrow. But we do know this: Everyone now knows that we are serious about rescuing our co-op. During the trial, some of the lawyers tried to paint us as a chaotic group of hiking hippies who met on the Internet. And though we’re not anywhere close to perfect, it’s clear that we’ve shown our power and resolve. Over 143,000 signatures. 95,000 emails sent to the big banks. And over $100 million of interest from institutions willing to support our bid to buy MEC back from Kingswood.

No matter what happens tomorrow, we know that we’ve done our best. And all in an incredibly short amount of time.

We’ve been thinking a lot about what will happen after the verdict. Mark your calendars for 5pm PT/8pm ET on Monday, Oct 5, when organizers will be hosting a 90-minute Webcast on Zoom and Facebook Live and watch this space for more information on how to get involved.

Tomorrow’s the day when we know what the next step will be. Get some rest and we’ll let you know as soon as we hear the verdict.

Cheers,

Kevin

P.S. Because this trial lasted far longer than we’d originally thought, our bills may be higher than expected. Anything you can do to help our legal and communications fund would be greatly appreciated.