The Wills Variation Act was written in approximately 2007 after the government of British Columbia the year prior announced that they intended to make slipping changes to wills and succession legislation in British Columbia. The overriding change was to change the Wills Variation Act provision so that adult independent children could no longer contest the will in British Columbia if they were inadequately provided for. The overriding reasoning for this change was that it would now bring British Columbia into more accord with the law of the rest of Canada.

My wife Judith Milliken and I led the fight against these proposed changes. I travel to various bar meetings. We wrote letters, and Judith in particular wrote this article and mailed it to the attorney general and republished it. It is a compelling story as to why the Wills Variation Act should not have been changed and I’m pleased to say that at the end of the day, we won. The government of British Columbia backed down and are not changing that provision of the Wills Variation Act.