Faces we

Cover Story
Cover Story
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond
B.C.’s representative for children & youth
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was appointed
to ensure the Ministry of Children and Family
Development is transparent and doing all it can
to alleviate the suffering of B.C.’s most vulnerable
youth. This past year was a particularly big one for
her office with the release of the infamous Paige’s
Report, which was emblematic of what a young
teenager can experience living without proper safe
guards under government care. Her office also
handled 15,000 advocacy cases in the last year
alone, and consistently advocates for the 3,000
children currently waiting for adoption. As for the
importance of the role her office plays, she says,
“The type of love we have for children has to be a
bit of a selfless love, sometimes you have to give
more of yourself than you expect to give back.”
m Photo submitted.
q Photo by Stefania Seccia.
“It’s life affirming but also really important to stand with
people who are vulnerable. … That as a community, as a
parent, and as a person to stand with people when they’re in
need of support and not just find reasons to walk past them.
That’s got to be the most important thing: we stop, learn, and
lend whatever assistance we can because that’s what it is to be
human and that’s what it is to have a good society.”
King-mong Chan and the
Chinatown Concern Group
“Sex worker rights are human rights.
If we only respect some people’s
human rights while we don’t respect
other people’s human rights, we’re not
going to get anywhere.”
– Laura Dilley, executive director
m Photo by Jackie Dives.
PACE Society
Outreach workers Leslie Pierre and Gina
Bombay, executive director Laura Dilley
The Providing Alternatives, Counselling &
Education Society located in the Downtown
Eastside offers peer-driven support and lowbarrier
programming to serve Vancouver’s sex
worker community. The society has been involved
in efforts to reverse recent federal policies that
made conditions less safe and more isolating for
sex workers. The outreach workers are former
sex workers who walk down alleys and quiet
streets, with kits and supplies in tow, trying to
find people who often fall through the cracks. If
they’re not helping sex workers on the streets,
they’re sharing their ideas and influencing policy
with Amnesty International, and in the year ahead
they aim to provide more programs and events
to improve the health and safety of sex workers.
The group’s identity truly formed this past year as
it launched a petition campaign calling on the City
of Vancouver to put a temporary halt on new market
development in the neighbourhood until there were “better
policies to protect Chinatown’s heritage and culture from
gentrification,” says King-mong Chan, the group’s lead.
The group drew a line in the sand over the future of 105
Keefer St., which has a rezoning application that’s raised
the ire of community members. “This application will
definitely be one of the biggest issues in this coming
year and this process is marking another defining
moment for Chinatown and its community.”
“Gentrification is definitely a class struggle but it is also a race struggle for Chinatown.
Through the work I’ve been doing, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be Chinese.
As gentrification threatens the cultural fabric of Chinatown, I’m compelled to stand and
fight for this place that holds a cultural root for me as a Chinese person. But to not just
do this by myself but instead to gather together with other Chinese-speaking community
members to become a force that cannot be taken lightly.” – King-mong Chan
18 Change that Works
MegaphoneMagazine.com
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