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Burnaby WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 2018
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
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RUNNING FOR HEALTH: The
annual Concord Lapower run was held on Sunday at Burnaby Lake Regional Park, with hundreds of people turning out to raise money for the Burnaby Hospital Foundation. This event is sponsored by Concord Pacific, as well as other groups such as Tourism Burnaby, the City of Burnaby and the NOW. If you’d still like to donate, visit burnabylakerun. com. PHOTO
Parent Power
JENNIFER GAUTHIER
BFC tries to shed past affiliations of its candidates But Heather Leung signed papers for an anti-SOGI advocate and won’t say if Pride flag should fly at City Hall Kelvin Gawley
kgawley@burnabynow.com
The Burnaby First Coalition is trying to distance itself from the past of some of its members accused of homophobia. But one of its candidates, who first entered politics by railing against school bullying protections for LGBT youth, signed the nomination papers of a scathing anti-SOGI activist this year and refused to take a stance on local issues affecting gay and transgender people. Heather Leung, seeking a council seat in the Oct. 20 election under the BFC banner, was a vocal opponent in 2011 of a school board policy designed to prevent discrimination against gay, lesbian and queer staff and students in
2018 / 2019
Burnaby schools. “What is being recommended in this draft is a deliberate and systemic strategy to indoctrinate our children with a controversial moral teaching that should be left for families to decide on and wrestle through,” she said at a board meeting in 2011. Leung served as the spokesperson for Burnaby Parents’Voice, a group formed to oppose the gayand transgender-positive policy. In November 2011, Leung unsuccessfully ran for school board alongside five others under the BPV banner, including current BFC candidate Charter Lau. But Leung told the NOW on Monday that her past political involvement has nothing to do with her current run for city council.
The interview came after BFC representatives took issue on several occasions with the NOW’s coverage of their party, when it mentioned Lau and Leung’s involvement in BPV. “Burnaby First Coalition, as a party, has no connection to Burnaby Parents’Voice and we are not a continuation of Burnaby Parents’Voice or any other party,” she said. This year, however, Leung signed the nomination papers for Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, a TV host and outspoken critic of B.C.’s sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) resource for schools, in her independent bid for Burnaby’s school board. Tyler Thompson has put the SOGI program at the centre of
her campaign. But Leung said signing Tyler Thompson’s nomination papers should not be seen as an endorsement of her views. “Like me, entering into politics takes courage, I know,” Leung said. “I have been the target of intimidation and have experienced bullying on numerous occasions, including media. If someone is willing to take on this challenge and they meet the legal requirement, I will sign their papers.” Asked how she came to sign the papers and whether the two candidates were friends, Leung said, “she knows people and I know some people and then we may have common friends and that’s it. And she’s famous as you know.”
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Leung repeatedly refused to say whether she continued to disagree with SOGI policies. She said BFC had no official stance on the issue. BFC’s attempts to move past Leung and Lau’s political beginnings are not convincing to at least one queer former North Burnaby Secondary student. Serene Carter, who graduated in 2017, was part of the formation of the SOGI policy and said Leung’s decision to sign Tyler Thompson’s papers “is just as bad as saying the same thing she says.” She said SOGI school policies save lives, as they protect LGBT youth, who have above-average suicide rates, from bullying and discrimination.
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