Gillani is the first of four CAFE landlords to go on trial, after bylaw officers slapped provincial charges on them between 2018 and last year.
Gillani said under oath that he only found out long after — he variously mentioned July and November 2018 — that the putative coffee shop was in fact dealing illegal bud from his building.
Gillani had personally signed three corporate filings for the company as far back as five months before it ever became his tenant, and it used the business address of his accounting firm on another official document, court heard Thursday.
But under cross-examination, he appeared to change his tune about who was behind the CAFE outlet on Harbord.
Gillani replied that he spoke to his property manager during the court break between Wednesday and Thursday.
Instead of the numbered company, Gillani on Thursday laid the blame for the CAFE outlet squarely at the feet of a residential tenant who lived on the second floor of the building.
During his testimony on Wednesday, Gillani had told court Brodie was likely the person who alerted him in the first place to CAFE’s illicit activities.