Long-time former trustee defends LGBTQ views as he makes another run
Posted September 20, 2018 11:20 pm.
Last Updated September 27, 2018 11:49 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A Vancouver trustee who lost four years ago following controversial comments about a proposed update to the school board’s LGBTQ policy, is making no apologies, as he makes another run for the position.
Back in 2014, Ken Denike and Sophia Woo held a news conference to suggest implementing an updated LGBTQ policy was going to impact real estate. They insisted real estate agents were worried the policy would deter foreigners from moving to Vancouver.
They were kicked out of their civic party, the NPA, as a result.
They then went on to lose their seats as trustees. Denike was first elected to the board in 1984.
Both Denike and Woo are running again, under the Coalition Vancouver banner.
In seeking re-election, Denike is defending the stand he took four years ago.
“We strongly supported the 2004 LGBTQ policy. Our concern was that when the new policy came forward, it was going through different versions. The board was trying to slide it through without going to the public to hear about it.”
He says there was nothing wrong with the older protocol and they never received any complaints about it.
“New versions were being discussed in committee. They were not being discussed openly. We thought they should have been discussed openly. We thought that people would have recognized that much of the details were already in the 2004 policy and there wouldn’t be the opposition there was.”
Denike says he’s running again because he sees glaring problems at the school board.
“They’re having budget shortfalls partially because we’re losing students to private schools, so we need to do something about our programming.”
Incidentally, Denike and Woo launched a lawsuit against Elections BC earlier this week. They want to stop Vancouver city council candidate Brandon Yan from being able to add his Chinese name to the ballot.
In the wake of their explusion from the NPA in 2014, they also took legal action – against the party, which they said tried to characterize them as homophobes.
