Social justice advocate, fighter for disability rights and author Jen Powley (1978 to 2023)

I met Jen Powley in late October 2017 on a stage.  It seemed strange that she was on the stage, since she was physically disabled and drove a wheelchair – but that is where she was.  There must have been a back way onto the stage without steps, I told myself.

That night Jen was the invited guest speaker at our annual fundraiser and dinner for the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives  Nova Scotia.  As then-chair of CCPA-NS, it was my job to make sure everything would be okay for her, and to help iron out any problems.  We talked, and I met her partner Tom, who as a filmmaker, was really handy with the technology Jen was going to use.

Just Jen (2017)

In May, Jen had published her first book Just Jen (Fernwood Books).  That night, I got her to sign my copy – Jen stamped her signature into my book.  She then asked me if I would buy 20 more for Christmas gifts in order to increase her sales.  I smiled weakly.

Her sense of humour threw me – maybe because I didn’t expect someone with profound disabilities would have such a clever and dry sense of humour.  Her voice was weak, a result of the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) which she had suffered from more than 20 years, but I could hear her.  Using a special voice recognition program, she had pre-recorded her speech.  It was played to the 200 plus assembled guests in the next hour.  

When I met Jen later that evening to thank her, I offered my usual noncommital goodbye, “Let’s get together soon!”  She took me up on it. She called me first. 

That was the start of a friendship that wasn’t as close as some – given our 25 year gap in ages. But it was a deep, mutually respectful relationship that was wonderful nonetheless.  

40 silk scarves…

I remember sitting on a dining room chair in her bedroom, seeing her 40 or more colourful silk scarves hanging on hooks along the wall.  She often lay in bed while we discussed politics – sometimes with one of her aides “translating” her words to me, as I could barely hear her diminished voice. Our discussions were direct, sometimes edgy and always illuminating. Usually, her adorable tiny cat, Tula, jumped on the bed and snuggled into the crook of her leg or arm. 

She and I agreed things had to change in the province and in Halifax where we had both lived since 2001.  People with disabilities counted for nothing as far as the governments were concerned.  People with physical disabilities were either forced to live with aging parents who could not easily care for them, or they lived in long-term care institutions where they were 30, 40 and 50 years younger than most of the residents. Group homes in NS were (and continue to be) reserved for people with mental or intellectual disabilities, not for people with severe physical disabilities. This unequal treatment of the mentally and the physically disabled has barely shifted, though both the Liberals and the Tories have virtue-signalled change is coming.

One day in June 2020, I talked to her about running for Halifax Regional Municipality Council.  We needed her on Council.  We both lived in Halifax South Downtown – the district represented by Waye Mason. He’d had two terms already and we knew many voters were ready for a change.  At first Jen was reluctant.  Her voice was weak, and she worried she didn’t have the stamina for a campaign.  I convinced her now was the time. 

Jen’s run for Halifax council

Weeks later, after raising money from supporters for her campaign, we were able to hire a “manager” Murphy Darocha, and engage a local filmmaker to make a short video about her as a person and her platform.  We could actually start a campaign for Jen Powley for District 7. 

Jen was brilliant.  She had good sense, a radical streak and a positive spirit. She chose a cabinet of about 10 people who met regularly at her apartment.  All had good ideas and most were willing to devote serious energy to her campaign.

Her debating skills were good, and she could write well.  We had brochures, op-eds, badges to wear, lawn and window signs. All in all, her campaign was a great success.  She came in second, netting 1882 votes or 31% of the vote to the incumbent’s 62% (but Jen got more votes than a previous challenger, someone with loads of Council experience.)  We thought this was a great result – she gave an able-bodied white man, who tended to side with the powerful, the developers and had little patience for people like Jen, a run for his money.   

I knew Jen as an activist.  There was seldom a demonstration she did not attend, often with her partner Tom. Even in bad weather, she came to outdoor meetings in her motorized wheelchair with an attendant. She was feisty and daring.  

She and some others managed to persuade the province’s disability services to try a pilot housing program.  Jen and some of us others proposed a group home, in which four or five people with severe disabilities could live together with assistance from aides on duty around the clock.  The province normally pays for only six hours of care from aides – no one knows what those who cannot use their arms or legs can do for the other 18 hours a day.  Eventually, the project was approved, and several others moved in with Jen to form the first residential home for severely physically disabled adults. 

Over the last year, I saw Jen was getting weaker.  During the worst times of Covid, she couldn’t have visitors because of her fragile health.  But her spirit was high and she kept writing. Since that first meeting on the stage, Jen published two more books, and I’m sure she was hard at work on another. 

Once I asked her why she had such a severe and debilitating case of MS. She smiled and said “just lucky, I guess.” 

Here is my blog post advertising Jen as guest speaker at the CCPA-NS dinner in 2017.

Here is an article Jen wrote on disability housing rights in the NS Advocate in 2019

Featured image at the top: Three Black Cats, by Maud Lewis (1968-69). Lewis is Nova Scotia’s best known folk artist. You can read more here and take a tour of the exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.