Born of Nisga'a, Gitxsan, Cree, and Ojibway ancestry, Mark was raised in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in difficult circumstances. She credits her grandparents with helping her get through the early death of her father from an overdose and dealing with her mother's addiction to drugs. She states her childhood as example of lack of appropriate support for indigenous people because she was sexually assaulted three times before 10 years of age, her brother was killed by a car collision when she was a teenager, she had kick-fighting incidents outside of her school, and was moved by Ministry of Children, Family Development to another family, out from her mother and not to her grandparents. She earned a degree in political science at Simon Fraser University after attending several different schools, including Van Tech, Douglas College, Native Education College, and Queen's School of Business. She worked with the Native Court Workers’ Association, Covenant House, the RCMP in Hazelton as a summer student, and as the national aboriginal project coordinator for Save the Children Canada’s Sacred Lives Project. From 2000 to 2006, Mark served as president of the Urban Native Youth Association. Beginning in 2007, she worked for eight years in the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, becoming an associate deputy representative in 2013. The Office is the supporting agency for the Representative for Children and Youth, a non-partisan officer of the BC Legislature reporting directly to the BC Legislative Assembly, mandated to advocate for young people and families going through the provincial child and youth welfare system. In 2006, Mark received the YWCA Vancouver Young Woman of Distinction Award, and in 2015, she received the Chief Joe Mathias Leadership Award from the Native Education College. In January 2018, she married Cassidy Kannemeyer, a basketball coach for Capilano University, just six days after the proposal.
Politics
Melanie Mark was first elected on February 2, 2016 in a by-election, winning with 61% of the vote and defeating BC Liberal Party candidate Gavin Dew and Green Party of British Columbia candidate Pete Fry. She is the first indigenous woman elected to the legislature of British Columbia. Following the BC general election, Mark was named as the Minister of Advanced Education in July 2017. In October 2017, Mark was criticized by the Opposition over reports that she had continued to receive her salary at the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth for 11 months, totalling $105,791, after leaving the position to run for elected office. At the time of her byelection, a representative from the Office had stated she had left voluntarily to pursue other job opportunities, which would have made her ineligible for severance payments. However, following the reports, an NDP caucus spokesperson said the Office had been restructured and her position was eliminated. In May 2018, Mark responded to criticism from the opposition BC Liberals over her refusal to supply her email records in response to an FOI request by them. Mark said she was not required to supply her sent emails as all final decisions were kept on file with her Deputy Minister. “The decisions and direction I make with the ministry are all on public record with the deputy minister’s office, that’s how records are kept,” Mark said.
