NDP MLA for Burnaby-Lougheed has announced she’s not running again but plans to continue to be a vocal advocate for victims of gender-based violence
Katrina Chen has paid a high price in her political career as a result of her continuing trauma from past abuse.
After being appointed minister of state for child care by then premier John Horgan in 2017, Chen was lauded for her work on rolling out the B.C. NDP government’s affordable child care program, which included significant subsidies for parents and wage top ups for early childhood educators.
However, the night before the cabinet shuffle, during the Dec. 6, 2022, ceremony to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, Chen revealed that she herself was struggling with the trauma of gender-based violence, which is why she asked Eby not to consider her for a cabinet post.
Since then, Chen has sat as a backbencher, mostly participating in the legislature virtually from the Burnaby home she shares with her son.
She announced on Nov. 22 that she will not seek re-election in the 2024 election. But Chen told Postmedia News she will continue to be outspoken about wanting to see better services for survivors of gender-based violence and more flexible working conditions for MLAs to open the door to more political participation from single moms like herself.
Chen admits that during her early years in politics, she made her work too much of a priority in an attempt to “run away from trauma.”
During trips around the province to make announcements about the NDP’s affordable child care program, Chen, whose parents live in Taiwan, remembers the stress of knowing that one delayed flight could mean the difference between being home for her nine-year-old son or having to call in a friend to help.
It’s part of the reason Chen, 40, decided not to run again.
“I decided that I really want to explore a new journey where I can better prioritize my son and myself and be more true to myself,” she said.
However, Chen said she’ll continue to push the government to do more to support victims of gender-based violence.
While she can’t reveal details about her personal case because of a court-ordered publication ban, Chen felt it was important to speak up about her past abuse in an effort to remove the stigma of being a survivor.
“I think from the voters view, they expect you to be almost perfect,” she said.
She does plan to share part of her story through a children’s book currently in progress, which will tackle the subject of family violence.
“I think one of the things I would love to do after I leave politics — and maybe one of the reasons I want to leave politics — I want to continue to advocate and make sure we fight against the stigma (of gender-based violence).”
The NDP government announced a three-year plan on Dec. 10 to address gender-based violence, which includes boosting supports for survivors, improving the government’s response to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and strengthening violence prevention and awareness programs.
Chen praised that spending and expanded services, but she’d like broader legal reforms including an integrated court for family law and criminal law cases. That would allow the court system to, for example, take into account past instances of intimate partner violence during custody cases.
“I think we need to definitely put a support focus on the justice system because survivors tend to be re-traumatized,” she said.
As the executive director of the Battered Women’s Support Services, Angela Marie MacDougall has been a strong voice calling for the government to make intimate partner violence a priority when it comes to funding — something she said is still lacking — and legal reforms, including expanded legal-aid services.
She’s encouraged that despite Chen’s decision to step back from politics, she plans to continue to advocate for survivors.
“Katrina has been a key voice in government in bringing her own lived experience into (the frame),” MacDougall said. “She’s been a really important voice for victims and survivors in so many ways.”
“I said, ‘Watch out, after I leave politics I’ll be a strong advocate on many issues I care about,’” Chen said, including child care, gender-based violence and more support in the school system for children with diverse needs. “Ever since I started facing my personal trauma, I realized I should have done more in this area. I could use my personal experience to do more.”
In her parting speech in the legislature on Nov. 22, Chen called for systemic changes that will make politics more inclusive and representative of British Columbians.
“I hope we can make this institution more caring, trauma-informed and equitable for people with diverse abilities and backgrounds,” she said.
Chen said one possible solution is adopting a hybrid work model in the legislature that could make it easier for people with diverse backgrounds — including immigrants and people of colour — to get involved in politics.
When NDP cabinet minister Melanie Mark announced her decision to resign as an MLA earlier this year, she called the legislature a “torture chamber” with a colonial structure that is especially difficult for Indigenous women. Mark, also a single mother, said she wanted to focus on raising her two daughters, aged 12 and 19.
“I do think we need to acknowledge that there is a lack of inclusion and there’s a lack of policies or room for people who may have diverse personal experiences, such as being an immigrant, a single mom with no family around and having to travel across the province to do the job,” Chen said. “I think this hybrid participation model is a no brainer.”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax
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