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Last week, Sherri Thomson saw her mother Eileen Wilke for the first time in more than two decades. She stared at Wilke from across the room at a public bylaw meeting in Lions Bay, wondering what would happen once she was recognized.

Wilke is a recently elected councillor in the wealthy coastal village. Thomson had come all the way from Ontario to answer to a lawsuit that her mother had filed against her. The civil claim alleges Thomson violated a settlement agreement to keep quiet about sexual abuse she suffered decades ago at the hands of her stepfather, Wilke’s husband Ronald.

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“It took her a minute to figure out who I was — then you see the panic set in,” Thomson said. “I really wasn’t going to say anything at all. It was just to see her.”

Wilke was eventually escorted out of the meeting and someone called Squamish RCMP to report a possible family dispute. “Nothing happened, so we left,” Staff Sgt. Jolaine Percival said.