B.C. councillor resigns after lawsuit against daughter becomes public

A Lions Bay, B.C. councillor has resigned after a lawsuit she filed against her daughter forpublicly disclosing details of an alleged abuse case itself became public.

Eileen Wilke'sresignation was accepted on Thursday, according to Lions Bay Mayor Karl Buhr in a statement posted to the municipality's website.

Wilke was elected in a November 2016 byelection. That same month, shefiled a notice of civil claim against her daughterSherri Anne Thomson.

The civil claim states Thomson violated the terms of a settlement made over two decades ago, in which she was not to speak about the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her stepfather.

Letters detailing the case were sent toBuhr, a fellow councillor, a Squamish radio station and other groups in the community just prior to the election, according to the civil claim.

No charges were ever laid and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

Mayor disappointed by public response

The story became public earlier this week, causing significant controversy in the village that is just a 30 minute drive north of Vancouver, but has a population of less than 1,500.

"It's an unfortunate situation that leaves the municipality in a fairly difficult place trying to understand where we are in terms of alerting the community to an alleged event that happened 30 years ago - and protecting the privacy of people against whomno charges have been proven," said Buhr earlier this week.

In announcingWilke's resignation, Buhrwrote that he was unable to comment directly on the case because it was before the courts, but that "the Village's lawyers are confident that neither the Village, nor its officers, nor its elected officials, did any wrong."

At the same time, he also criticized the discourse around the controversy.

"The deplorable vitriol spewed out by social media trolls that brought this resignation about some directed at me and Council, often with identical misspellings, most of it irrational, and all of it only half informed angers and disappoints me," he wrote.