NDP Vancouver–Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan says something was lost in translation in a campaign flier of Kanman Wong, a city council candidate of the Non-Partisan Association.

The leaflet was written in Chinese on one side and English on the other.

Kwan noted that the Chinese version contained slogans “Increase police force, Everyone lives well! Oppose open more drug injection site!”

However, on the English side, Wong’s opposition to the opening of more supervised-drug-injection sites was nowhere to be found.

Instead, the English slogans read: “Reduce crime, reduce the tax burden and reduce homelessness.”

In a phone interview with the Straight, Kwan said that it is “highly inappropriate” that the flier was made to appear that the Chinese message was translated into English when, in fact, “you’ll see different messages.”

“We need to ask the question: shouldn’t there be one message for all voters on a leaflet like that?” Kwan said.

Kwan also wondered whether Wong was “trying to misled the community”, and if the NPA is condoning such practice.

When reached by the Straight for comment, Wong maintained that the English side of his leaflet was not intended as a translation of the Chinese slogans.

Wong explained that his particular message on the drug-injection sites was really tailored for the Chinese community.

“You understand that if you’re in a different group of people…they would have different kind of concerns,” he said.

Wong said that what he intended was that if a voter of Chinese background gets hold of the flier and can read both Chinese and English, that person will also know that aside from his [Wong’s] opposition to injection sites, the NPA candidate is also concerned about taxes and homelessness.