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The richest woman in Canada and the chair of the Canadian Football League appear to be digging in their heels and priming their legal teams for what promises to be a very messy civil trial in Toronto next month, replete with allegations of self-dealing, forgery and downloads of “hard porn.”

Sherry Brydson, who as the granddaughter of Roy Thomson is an heiress to the Thomson fortune, five years ago fired James Lawson, who for eight years had run the investment company Westerkirk Capital Inc., of which she is the sole director and executive chair.

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In 2013, Lawson sued for wrongful dismissal, claiming $24 million in damages. Lawson argued that Brydson pushed him out because his efforts to run Westerkirk professionally, and invest its money for the best possible return, ran afoul of the family’s profligate and erratic style.

“Sherry Brydson conducts herself as if she is the head or matriarch of the Brydson family and the owner of Westerkirk,” Lawson argued in the claim. “Brydson was in fact only a minority non-voting equity participant.”