It is time to change to a New City Government that will make transparent and accountable decisions with and for all the People of Vancouver with Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice. The next Municipal Government for the City of Vancouver should be committed to 1) strengthening Participatory Democracy and adopting Election Campaign Finance Reform to prevent favours and making secret deals with political donors; and 2) designating Vancouver as a Sanctuary City to turn Vancouver into a City of Inclusion for Aboriginal, Immigrants, Refugees, and Low-Income and Homeless People.
Wilson is a Chemical Engineer and Social / Environmental Activist who came to Canada as refugee in the 1980’s during the civil war in El Salvador. After arriving in Canada with a formal post-secondary degree in Education from Southern California where he had worked with refugees, solidarity and community organizations in Los Angeles, he immediately started cooperating with UTAC, the Unemployed Teachers Action Centre, and the BCTF, Teachers’ Federation, to organize employment for Canadian teachers in California and oppose the Expo 86 Land Deal by the BC Conservative Government. He also became the Vice- President of the Canadian Hispanic Congress BC Chapter and had an active role in designing, lobbying for funding with different levels of the Federal Government and implementing two important projects for the Latin American and Immigrant Community: Teknos Career Institute – a training institution for immigrants- and Casa Latinoamericana (the Latin American Ho use) – a centre to assist refugees coming from Central and Latin America during the 1980’s and integrating them into Canadian life.
He is a Financial Manager and a member of a solidarity organization, CODESES, that supports social development in the Americas, and has a weekly radio segment, Tribuna Latino Americana, at 96.1 FM on solidarity and mining issues on the Americas. He has been a member of the COPE Executive for more than 2 years and very active in a) addressing homeless, social housing crisis, refugee (Jose Figueroa and Lucia Vega Jimenez cases) and environmental / human rights violation issues; b) supporting: the teachers strike for educational reform and eradicating hungry school children from Vancouver, First Nations’ rights, gender parity and diversity issues, and c) promoting government accountability to the People of Vancouver by upholding a living wage and the designation of Vancouver as a Sanctuary City. With COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, we can build a Vancouver that everyone can afford.
Facebook: Wilson Munoz
Twitter: twitter.com/WilsonMunoz14
Website: cope.bc.ca/wilson/
