Keith Fraser, The Province
Published: Friday, March 14, 2008
Drawing on funds from her wealthy mom, a Whistler mother of two young kids and aspiring singer burned through $30,000 on a festival that made no profit.
The 37-year-old woman produced a music video, three CDs of her songs and operated a T-shirt operation, which she described as "botched."
Over her 40-year-old husband's objections, she invested in a tantric sex video and tantric pillows by giving the "filmmaker" $110,000.
"The money was never seen again; neither was the video," said B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Humphries in a divorce judgment in which she describes the wife's expenditures as "to put it mildly, outrageous."
The wife, who is only identified as "Ms. D" due to a publication ban imposed by the judge over concerns that the kids might be harmed by disclosure, began living with her husband-to-be in 1991.
They had their first child in 1994, married in 1995 and had a second child in 2000. They separated in May 2003.
Throughout the marriage they relied on money from the wife's mother, dividends amounting to more than $300,000 a year.
The wife also got a loan of $2.7 million from her family that she used to create a production company for her musical aspirations but eventually branched out into a series of unsuccessful business ventures, including the purchase of a large lodge north of Whistler, which lost a great deal of money. The loan has not been repaid.
On another occasion, the wife invested $90,000 in an old convent in Nelson, which she called "the TempL" where she and her friends could ring temple bells and wait for a "holistic convergence."
She paid $7,000 for a trip to Egypt for herself and a hula hoopist whom she intended to use in her future musical act and upon their return from Egypt she gave the hula hoopist another $8,000. Her singing career went nowhere.
The judge said the husband was hardly selfless -- he enjoyed "remarkable freedom" from the usual financial cares that beset single parents and did not live a spartan lifestyle while doing most of the child-rearing.
His wife tried to portray him as a wastrel spender, but the judge said she found his testimony to be straightforward.
"However, Ms. D. was prone to exaggeration, emotional overlay and running commentary, which was difficult for counsel or the court to control," said the judge.
"If she was reined in on one subject, she quickly took off at another."
The judge made orders related to family assets but noted that if no dividends from the wife's mother are forthcoming, both parties will have to find work and "it is almost inevitable" that the matrimonial home will have to be sold.
"If no or little money is forthcoming, the terms of reference for this family will change so drastically that this action will have been a waste of time. The future of this family will have to await the intentions and wishes of [the mother]."
kfraser@png.canwest.com
Source: http://www.canada.com