Judi Tyabji is seen in this photo posted to Facebook.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK / Judi Tyabji
August 15, 2025 - 7:00 PM
The former leader of the BC Liberal Party is being sued by his ex-wife and former MLA more than 30 years after news of their affair cost him the leadership of the party.
Former MLA Judi Tyabji filed a lawsuit at the Kelowna courthouse Aug. 5, accusing her ex-husband, former Liberal Party leader Gordon Wilson, of mismanaging the couple's Sunshine Coast sheep farm.
"(Wilson) acts with complete disregard and disrespect for (Tyabji's) rights as a shareholder and refuses to share any relevant information with respect to the conduct of the company. He has mismanaged the operation of the business and is using his mismanagement as his reason to reduce (her) equity in the assets, trying to harass her into signing away the equity she built over twenty-five years of work in the company she co-founded," the court documents said.
In the court document, Tyabji accuses Wilson of being "belligerent" about her request for him to hand over financial information about the business they'd jointly owned.
Tyabji, who lives in Peachland, claims Wilson began withholding information about the company in 2018 and made decisions on spending calling them "shareholder debt" that she wasn't privy to.
In 2019, Wilson had a custom home built, with an elevated view of the 12.5-acre Powell River property.
"(Wilson) has had the full benefit of this house and its contents. (Tyabji) has never spent time in this house. (She) believes that (he) deliberately frustrated the operations of the business so that he could personally benefit at the expense of the company, so that he could eventually claim the company owed him enough money to be forced to sign over all the assets to him personally," the court document read.
The legal dispute comes 35 years after Wilson brought the Liberal Party back from obscurity. He is largely credited with getting the BC Liberal Party into the legislature following more than a decade without a seat. His 1991 victory saw the Liberal Party become the official opposition, with him leading the party.
Tyabji was the first Indo-Canadian woman elected to the BC Legislature in 1991. In 1993, when she was the party's House Leader, news came out that the two, who were both married, were having an affair. They denied it, but a four-page love letter in Tyabji’s handwriting was leaked to the press. Wilson alleged it had been swiped from his briefcase.
The couple divorced their spouses and married in 1994.
But the affair rocked the party and forced a leadership race, which Gordon Campbell won and later went on to become premier.
Tyabji made further headlines that year when she lost custody of her children after a judge ruled that her busy political career would interfere with her role as a parent. She went on the Oprah Winfrey show to talk about it.
The couple separated in 2021 and divorced in 2023.
Gordon Wilson is seen in a photo posted to Facebook.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK / Gordon F.D. Wilson
The court documents said they founded the Powell River company in 1996, and its assets have changed over the years from private consulting, intellectual property, project development, physical assets, and properties.
Since 2014, it has primarily been a sheep farm and large organic vegetable garden.
The couple had different ideas about how the farm should be run, and Tyabji wanted to bring in additional revenue streams, to which Wilson objected.
The court documents said that in 2018, Wilson began using his personal bank account for company business and wouldn't give Tyabji copies of bank statements and only the occasional receipt.
"He often claimed he had lost receipts, and he insisted that the expenditure be added to his shareholder loan. This was the initiation of bad faith behaviour," the court filing read.
The business relationship broke down further, and Tyabji said that if Wilson wouldn't agree that the business should be sold. At the time there was about $1-million of equity in the property.
"(Wilson) refused to discuss selling the assets because he wanted to continue to live on the farm," the court documents said.
"Beginning in 2021, and again in 2024, (Wilson) borrowed money... and after arranging for the borrowing, demanded that (Tyabji) sign for the debt because it increased the company's assets. (Wilson) has had the sole benefit of these funds borrowed and has refused to account for the expenditures," the court document read.
Wilson offered $50,000 to buy out Tyabji's 50% of the company and later offered $1,381 for 15 years, but Tyabji refused the offers.
"In May 2025, (Tyabji) found out that (Wilson) took money from his sister that was meant to pay off the first mortgage and other debt he had assigned to the property and had instead attached it as a second mortgage to the property, without her knowledge or consent," the court document read.
The legal petition asks the court to decide how to move forward with the business.
Wilson has not yet responded to the petition. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
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