To the editor:
Re: “Ken Denike and Sophia Woo to run under Vancouver First,” Aug. 14.
As reported in your article, we held a press conference Aug. 8 to announce our candidacies for school trustee with Vancouver’s new civic party Vancouver First. We are very pleased to be running as candidates for Vancouver First — a new party with a new voice that can truly engage with Vancouverites.
Your article repeated an unfortunate characterization of a press conference we held earlier this summer. We would like to be clear about this. On June 13 we held a press conference to discuss concerns we had heard from parents who are realtors with expansive networks in the international community.
They were concerned about the effect of budget cuts on the quality of education in Vancouver schools and the effect of changes to LGBTQ+ policy without sufficiently inclusive consultation upon enrolment of international students (who the VSB is dependent on for budgeting purposes). It was our view that further consultation could relieve those concerns. Our call for further consultation was in no way inconsistent with our commitment to the protection of LGBTQ+ communities.
These concerns were distorted in media reports, including your Aug. 14 article, which attributed to us the view that the draft LGBTQ+ policy could harm real estate values. That is an obviously absurd and nonsensical position. It is not a position we have advanced or ever would consider advancing.
Education is our passion. And it’s the passion of many, especially members of our new communities who know it is critical to the future of their families.
We are pleased to pursue this passion now in affiliation with a new party, one whose focus and goals comes from the citizens — who we have always listened to — and not the old politics that ignored too many Vancouver communities and citizens.
Ken Denike and Sophia Woo,
Vancouver School Board trustees
