Melanie Mark will resign as MLA, saying B.C. Legislature felt like a “torture chamber”

Citing a colonial institution that felt like a “torture chamber,” Melanie Mark, B.C.’s first First Nations cabinet minister, said she will resign her Vancouver-Mount Pleasant seat in the Legislature.

Wearing her grandfather’s tan beaded jacket and holding an eagle feather, Mark delivered an emotional speech in the Legislature Wednesday that charted her rise to a B.C. NDP cabinet minister from her difficult upbringing in the East Vancouver “projects”, the child of two parents who struggled with addiction and homelessness.

“There was a lot that I’m proud of but this journey has been challenging and has come at a significant personal toll,” said the 47-year-old who served as minister of advanced education and minister for tourism, sport, arts and culture in former premier John Horgan’s cabinet. Mark did not specify her resignation date.

Mark expressed frustration with colonial institutions like the Legislature that “fundamentally resist the urge to do things differently.”