A Chilliwack, B.C., man says his family was torn apart by a land deal that's now part of the RCMP investigation that prompted former solicitor general John Les to resign.

Willy Rasmussen says his father sued his sister after she sold the family farmland to John Les, then mayor of Chilliwack, in 1997.
(CBC)

Willy Rasmussen told CBC News Wednesday that he and his sister have not talked for 10 years because of the way their parents' 11 acres of farmland in Chilliwack ended up being owned and developed by Les.

Wilmer and Karen Rasmussen, who owned the property just off Camp River Road, wanted to keep two acres of it for a home where they could retire and sell the rest, the son said.

The municipality and the Agricultural Land Commission repeatedly denied their applications so the couple sold the land in 1997 to their daughter and son-in-law, Henny and John Watt.

The Watts in turn sold the land to Les, then mayor of Chilliwack. The city subsequently approved a subdivision that parcelled the property into two-acre development lots that Les sold, in what is now known as the Rosebank development.

'If it was 'No' for my father, it should have been 'No' for John Les.'— Willy Rasmussen

"If it was 'No' for my father, it should have been 'No' for John Les," said Willy Rasmussen, who grew up in Chilliwack and now sells car parts for a living in Surrey and Coquitlam.

The attorney general's criminal justice branch says the RCMP investigation has to do with whether Les improperly benefited from commercial transactions involving land developers.

But CBC News learned from one of the people interviewed by police last year that RCMP officers were asking questions about the Rosebank development.

No charges have been laid by the RCMP, but the investigation continues.

Father sued daughter after farmland sale

Rasmussen said his father was so upset by the sale of his farmland he sued his own daughter but died in 1998 at age 87 with the court case still unresolved.

"I look back upon it and I get a little teary-eyed about it and a little embittered about the whole thing," Rasmussen said of his father's death. "Even to this day, my sister and I are not on the best of terms, for lack of a better word."

Henny and John Watt refused an interview request by CBC News Wednesday.