Kerry Jang

Kerry Jang is a Canadian politician, currently serving on Vancouver, British Columbia's City Council. He currently serves as a Director of the Greater Vancouver Regional District Board.^[1] He was first elected in the 2008 municipal election. Before entering politics, Jang was a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia.

Background

Born and raised in Vancouver,^[2] Jang was the eldest of three siblings.^[3] His father, Leslie, was a Vancouver School Board plumber for 20 years, and his mother, May, had an administrative career with the Provincial Court of British Columbia, taught Chinese cooking, and sold cookware.^[2] Jang's paternal grandfather had three wives, of which Jang's paternal grandmother was third, and twenty-one children.^[3] Jang's grandfather made a fortune as a merchant after immigrating from China, but lost it all in the Great Depression.^[3] Jang's maternal grandfather was a pig farmer in China and became a tailor after immigrating to Canada.^[3]

Education

He attended Renfrew Elementary School^[3] prior to Windermere Secondary School, where he was not a very good student.^[2] He worked on improving his academic record at Vancouver Community College and then transferred to Simon Fraser University to complete his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Psychology.^[2] He completed his education with a Ph.D. in Personality Psychology^[4] at the University of Western Ontario,^[2] where he initially studied under the highly controversial J. Philippe Rushton, known for work on race, intelligence and penis length.^[3] Jang has described the experience of witnessing Rushton's censure, and the impact it had on his understanding of politics:

"his theory was that Asians are the smartest people on earth. I didn’t believe it, because, mathematically, if you look at IQ scores there’s so much overlap, there’s no difference. He was wrong. He was censured by the university and I skeedaddled out of his lab within three months. What that taught me was the power of activism. People challenged him. They shut him down. I learned you can take on the big guy in a respectful way. It opened up a wide range of options."^[3]

Politics

In September 2006, Jang announced that he planned to seek the federal NDP nomination for the Vancouver Kingsway Riding, after being called by Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP.^[5] The incumbent was David Emerson, who had crossed the aisle to the Conservative Party after the earlier election in 2006.^[5] Jang subsequently backed out of the race.^[6]

Jang was one of three elected officials who served on Homeless Emergency Action Team,^[7] which conceived the controversial^[8][9][10] Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters.

In June 2014, Jang faced a court petition to remove him and fellow councillor Geoff Meggs from office for allegedly violating rules on conflict of interest in connection with the rezoning of a public housing project.^[11]

Family

Jang and his wife Vicki live at the corner of 16th and Nootka^[3] in the Renfrew-Collingwood area of Vancouver. They have two children, Nicholas and Rachel.^[2]

References

External links

• Kerry Jang at Vancouver City Council