Asian values are no excuse for disinheriting daughters, Canadian court rules, as Vancouver sisters win multimillion-dollar case
- A British Columbia law, unique in Canada, forces parents’ wills to fairly provide for all non-dependent adult children, regardless of cultural bias towards sons
- The rules are highlighted by a recent victory for four sisters, who were each originally left with just 1.7 per cent of their parents’ US$6.8 million estate
The elderly Chinese immigrant came to the office of Vancouver lawyer Trevor Todd, a long-time neighbour, with plans to write his will.
He brought with him his wife of 35 years – and the intention to disinherit her and their daughter, and instead leave the entire family fortune to the couple’s adult son.
“I told him ‘forget it’,” said Todd last week, of the encounter 15 years ago.
Todd’s neighbour was hardly an outlier. Sex-based disinheritance of Asian women is widespread in Canada, lawyers told the South China Morning Post, with wives and daughters sometimes “shafted” (to use Todd’s wording) by the will of a family patriarch.
But the phenomenon is now under scrutiny in Canada, thanks to a high-profile multimillion-dollar court victory for four sisters, who were represented by Todd.
And a legislative quirk in British Columbia, little known outside the legal community, is giving ammunition to such women, by effectively forcing men to make fair provision for wives and adult daughters, regardless of tradition or culture.
