Indo-Canadian: $13.5 million in trust was not cash in hand

The gas station at 21180 Victoria Road in Ridgetown, Ontario, and the motel beside it at 21198 have been in the hands of their would-be buyers since May and June of 2025. That is when the two related companies that own them handed possession to two companies of the J Dass Group that had agreed to buy them. The buyers undertook what the group's chief operating officer, Gurpreet Dass, calls "significant renovations to both the gas station and the motel." The sales were to close on September 15, 2025. They did not, because Royal Bank of Canada would not discharge its security on the two properties unless the entire debt of the four related companies, then more than $10.2 million, was repaid, per the Dass Affidavit, July 24, 2026, paras. 8, 11, 13–15.

Neither property is in the receivership of 2309136 Ontario Inc., the trucking company known as Indo-Canadian, and 2738400 Ontario Inc., which owns its yard in Halton Hills. On August 14, 2026, in Royal Bank of Canada v. 2309136 Ontario Inc., 2026 ONSC 4707, Justice W.D. Black of the Commercial List wrote: "It seems clear that each side covets the Ridgetown Properties, and that these properties are the 'jewels' among the assets at issue here." Their pursuit, he added, seemed to be what was driving the contest in the receivership, per the Endorsement, Aug. 14, 2026, paras. 3–5. He then refused the debtors' motion to redeem RBC's debt, now held by a Dass company that had bought it, and approved the receiver's sale of the Halton Hills yard to a bid made with that debt.

A yard on Steeles Avenue

Indo-Canadian started trucking in 2014 and grew, its operations manager Jaswinder Soni deposes, from about five to ten trucks to twenty or thirty. It ran from the yard at 16622 Steeles Avenue. In the debtors' account, the trouble came from Ridgetown. The related companies 2780679 Ontario Ltd. and 2831004 Ontario Ltd. bought the adjoining hotel and gas station properties in 2020 and 2022 with RBC financing, and because the bank would not lend against their full value, it required an additional $3.5 million loan against the Steeles property and cross-guarantees from the debtors. The motel did not succeed, interest rates rose, and when the owners tried to sell, "market values were down and we could not get the price needed," per the Soni Affidavit, July 17, 2026, paras. 4, 8–10.

RBC's account, sworn in January 2026 by Adam Haugh of its Special Loans and Advisory Services Group, begins in April 2024, when five chargebacks totalling more than $2,800,000 hit Indo-Canadian's account. A refinancing targeted for October 31, 2024, and then partial and full refinancings with TD in 2025, never closed. RBC made demand in July and August 2025, when $10,145,759.76 and US$15,284.81 of principal and interest was owing among the four companies, per the Haugh Affidavit, Jan. 22, 2026, paras. 24, 26–30, 34, 37, 43.

Justice F.L. Myers appointed The Fuller Landau Group Inc. receiver on February 23, 2026, over "the operating trucking company and a holding company," neither of which opposed, and adjourned the part of the application aimed at the Ridgetown companies, per the Endorsement of Myers J., Feb. 23, 2026, paras. 7–8. The receiver reached the 2.930-acre yard at about 4:15 that afternoon. The debtors' office staff refused it access, and at about 6:30 p.m. it had the locks changed and posted 24-hour security so that no truck or trailer could leave without its consent. It then decided, citing management's lack of co-operation, the absence of proper financial records and uncertain insurance, not to run the business, and terminated the employees, per the Receiver's First Report, Apr. 6, 2026, paras. 3, 9–11, 35–36.

The bank's debt changes hands

By an agreement made as of April 6, 2026, RBC assigned its debt and security against all four companies to 1001557980 Ontario Inc., an affiliate of the J Dass Group, for $10,186,157.46 plus US$11,771.98, per the Assignment of Debt and Security Agreement, Apr. 6, 2026, recitals A–D, s. 10(a)(i). Three days later Black J. recorded that RBC "has now received funds representing the full indebtedness," per the Endorsement, Apr. 9, 2026, para. 2. His August reasons describe the assignment as made "for the express stated purpose of permitting the purchases of the Ridgetown Properties (by parties related to the Assignee) to proceed," and record, as the Assignee emphasized, that the debtors, "although represented throughout by (prior) counsel, took no position relative to the Assignee's transparent maneuvering to acquire the Ridgetown Properties," per the Endorsement, Aug. 14, 2026, paras. 14–15.

On May 11, Black J. approved the receiver's marketing and sale process for the yard, with Rentex Realty Inc. as broker. At the same attendance the debtors raised a $5,000,000 construction lien that the Assignee's related purchasers had registered against the Ridgetown properties; it was before the court in Chatham, and he left it there, per the Endorsement, May 11, 2026, paras. 2, 10–18.

Eleven offers for the yard

By the June 30 bid deadline, 587 parties had viewed the MLS listing, 1,200 emails had gone out, 21 parties had signed confidentiality agreements, 10 had toured the site, and 11 had made offers. The highest, for the yard and the equipment, came from the Assignee, and after its conditions were clarified a revised offer was signed on July 8, subject to court approval, per the Receiver's Second Report, July 16, 2026, paras. 17–21. Mr. Dass describes it as "a reserve bid to establish a minimum acceptable sale price," per the Dass Affidavit, July 24, 2026, para. 22.

The agreement, dated June 30, 2026, names 1001613849 Ontario Inc. as purchaser and defines the "Secured Creditor" as 1001557980 Ontario Inc., as assignee of RBC's loan and security. Its price is a blacked-out sum plus the amounts needed to pay the priority payables, subject to a cap, also blacked out, on Indo-Canadian's. The purchaser pays by assuming a blacked-out portion of the debtors' loan from the Secured Creditor and wiring the balance on closing; $600,000 of the assumed loan is allocated to the equipment, per the Agreement of Purchase and Sale (redacted), June 30, 2026, ss. 1(jj), 4–6. Rentex's activity report, the summary of the 11 offers and the unredacted agreement went to the court as confidential appendices, and closing is set for 11 days after the approval and vesting order issues, per the Receiver's Second Report, July 16, 2026, paras. 19, 22, 25–27.

A payout statement, then a motion

The debtors first asked the Assignee for a payout statement on June 12, while the sale process was under way. The Assignee acknowledged that it had refused to give one before the process ended, because the process involved its own credit bid, and afterward gave a partial statement that left out Ridgetown, per the Endorsement, Aug. 14, 2026, paras. 23–26. At a case conference on July 13, Justice J. Dietrich recorded the Assignee's agreement to deliver a payout statement by July 15, per the Endorsement of Dietrich J., July 13, 2026, paras. 3–4.

The statement put the debt at $10,445,828.07 and US$12,322.44 as of July 16, and the debtors do not dispute it. Their motion, dated July 17, asked the court to discharge the receiver once they paid that sum, the receiver's fees and $141,011.90 of identified priority payables, $130,944.99 of it realty taxes owed to the Town of Halton Hills. For the money, it pointed to an email confirming that Norton Rose Fulbright LLP held $10,500,000 in trust to redeem the loan, per the Soni Affidavit, July 17, 2026, paras. 3, 19–20, 25, 33–34.