A bitter decades-long sibling rivalry within an enterprising Canadian family best-known for its sweet confections is playing out in a Toronto, Ont. courtroom.
Carolyn Dare-Wilfred wants to cash in her lucrative stake in the privately-owned Kitchener, Ont.-based multinational food manufacturing company that bears her family name. She is suing her brothers Bryan Robert Dare and Graham Neal Dare under the Ontario Business Corporation Act for blocking access to her stake in the Dare Foods Group.
Her lawyer, John Ormston, laid out his opening arguments on Monday, saying his client was frozen out of the family and business over the course of approximately 30 years, unable to access her shares while her brothers claimed dividends.
The company was founded in 1892, by Dare-Wilfred’s great-grandfather Charles H. Doerr, as a small shop selling cookies and candies. It has since grown to sell products in more than 50 countries, including such popular brands as Breton Crackers, Melba toast and Wagon Wheels.
The legal action now underway could decide the fate of the cookie-and-candy dynasty if Dare-Wilfred’s side is able to convince the court that her brothers acted in an “oppressive or unfairly prejudicial manner.” She could then request an order forcing her brothers to buy her shares at a court-appointed price, or have them put up for public auction.
Dare-Wilfred’s father Carl Dare inherited the business in the 1940s, and set up trust funds with shares of the company for each of his three children four decades later. By the time the trust matured in 2001, the three beneficiaries and their father were locked in a family drama that would see Dare-Wilfred leave Canada for New Zealand while her brothers grew the business into a supermarket juggernaut.
Dare-Wilfred says her marriage to Harmon Wilfred -- a self-proclaimed whistleblower against the U.S. government who claims to have worked as a contractor for the CIA and spent time in jail on both sides of the border -- was at the heart of the rift with her now-deceased father and her brothers.
Carl Dare is said to have lent the couple $400,000 to help with Wilfred’s legal troubles. However, they have said no charges were formally laid against Wilfred. The pair went to New Zealand in 2001, claiming they feared for their lives.
That’s when Dare-Wilfred tried to liquidate some of her shares in the family business.
Carl Dare is said to have offered to buy his daughter a luxury home and pay her an annual salary of $82,000, if she agreed to leave her husband. She instead cut a deal with him to sell a quarter of her shares for $5 million, plus a $341,000 annual dividend over five years.
The value of Dare-Wilfred’s remaining stake in the privately-owned business is uncertain. She claims her shares are worth $50 million, her brothers Bryan and Graham say the value is far less.
Both brothers are expected to testify in court later this week.
With a report from CTV Kitchener
