Similar to a lot of people dealing with business partners but my summary is:

I started the company myself initially and being an insecure person generally, I was fooled to partner up with supposedly a door to door sales expert who definitely sold himself to me as a great asset to my business.

Unfortunately everything we agreed upon was verbal due to my inexperience and the company was not worth much for me to be protective about. The only written agreement was that I own 51% and gave him 49% at no charge, believing everything he said he would do to help grow the company. Our verbal agreement was that with his sales skills and background, he would handle the door to door sales of the company and eventually create a team while I would complete the services and grow the service team. Fast forward 6 years later, he has knocked doors for 1 day ever since. at the start we ended up hiring an expensive sales contractor to do his job and I was convicted yet again to keep him around for other minor tasks that I ended up fixing as we grew. Over several years his work quality has detreated drastically, he barely shows up to work, refuses to listen to any feedback and almost all 15 staff members refuse to work with him for various reasons. For the past 2 years I have put in 90% of the day to day operations while he barely manages 10% properly, at this point I feel fully taken advantage of and need him gone ASAP.

Company is now making over 1.5 million revenue This is a Canadian limited company Over a thousand clients 15 employees

I have received legal advice from 3 lawyers to better understand my rights before approaching him in order not to put him on guard yet. Unfortunately all 3 lawyers have some information that does not match and I feel a bit lost in the decision making process. For example I was told by one that since I hold majority shares, I can easily remove him from the board or directors and remove him from day to day operations which paying myself a salary for my work. Another lawyers advised me that he can easily file a complaint and win even though I have majority ownership.

My plan of actions are as followed:

I really want to start gathering usable evidence for a possible legal showdown of his contribution but I don’t know how to do so besides office camera that would prove his attendance. The company name is not trademarked by anyone and I plan to solely apply for it right away. I will remove him from all digital login accesses shortly before a sit down to corner him I have been told that since I have access to the federal corporate online site, I can remove him from board of directors myself and also use that updated document to remove his access from banking. After doing all this, I will confront him and talk about a market value buyout which will be calculated by a third party professional.

I would appreciate some guidance from anyone who knows or dealing with such situations, If you think this will work or some actions here will have high legal consequences please let me know.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Thank you in advance!