Wendy Lill

Wendy Lill (born November 2, 1950) is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and radio dramatist who served as an NDP Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2004. Her stage plays have been performed extensively in theatres across Canada as well as internationally in such countries as Scotland, Denmark and Germany.

Many of the plays explore the divide between the powerful and the oppressed, exploring, for example, the racism and abuse suffered by Canada's indigenous peoples, issues faced by people with disabilities, child sexual abuse and women's rights. Four of her plays were nominated for Governor General's Awards. Sisters, which dramatizes the human devastation caused by a convent-run, native residential school, received the Labatt's Canadian Play Award at the Newfoundland and Labrador Drama Festival. Lill's adaptation of Sisters for television earned her a Gemini Award in 1992. Her documentary Who is George Forest? and her radio drama Shorthanded won ACTRA Awards in 1981.

She was a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage where she contributed to the recommendations that resulted from three major studies: the federal government's role in supporting arts and culture; the state of the Canadian book publishing industry in an era of big-box retailers and declining independent bookstores; and, the importance of public and private broadcasting in protecting Canada's cultural sovereignty.

Personal life and early career Wendy Lill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of Edwin Henry Lill and Margaret Galbraith Gordon. She received a BA in Political Science from York University in 1971. After graduation, she toured Europe, worked as a cocktail waitress and began writing poetry.

After quitting her mental health job, Lill began working for a native newspaper, flying to remote reserves where she "spent a lot of time sleeping on floors in nursing stations." According to one account, Lill's businessman father suggested that in successful drama, even the villains have to be real, a piece of advice that she apparently took to heart. Samuel has Down's syndrome and both Lill and Starr are well known for their advocacy on behalf of people living with disabilities.

Member of Parliament Lill's first formal political involvement came during the 1970s when she joined the NDP's left-wing Waffle movement. a riding that contains everything from an industrial harbourfront and urban downtown to burgeoning suburban neighbourhoods and rural villages such as Cherry Brook and the Prestons that make up the country's oldest African-Canadian community. As she knocked on doors, Lill found voters receptive. "The voters talk to me about exactly the same things the NDP have made issues in this campaign," she said, adding that people feared for their jobs and were angry at losing government services in the cutbacks imposed by the federal Liberal government. She was re-elected in 2000, defeating former provincial cabinet ministers, Bernie Boudreau and Tom McInnis.

In the fall of 2003, Lill announced that she would not be running in the next federal election. She revealed that she had been suffering from the effects of multiple sclerosis for the past three years.

Culture and rights advocate During Wendy Lill's seven years in the House of Commons, the NDP took advantage of her background in the arts and her experience as a journalist appointing her as its critic for culture, communications and the media industries. She also served as the party's advocate for human rights, children and youth and, people living with disabilities. She and her party waged a successful campaign to protect a tax credit for Canadians with severe and prolonged disabilities. Lill also helped establish a parliamentary subcommittee that regularly questioned cabinet ministers on their handling of issues affecting people living with disabilities.

Plays

Lill wrote her first play in 1979, On the Line, while still working for the CBC in Winnipeg. The play is about the strike by immigrant garment industry women workers in Winnipeg. Her next play was The Fighting Days (1985), examining the early days of the Canadian suffrage movement. Her monodrama The Occupation of Heather Rose (1987) is based on her experience in Northern Ontario. It speaks of a young white idealistic nurse who went to work on the Snake Lake Reservation. The play was nominated for a Governor General Award. Memories of You (1989) is about the controversial life of the female artist Elizabeth Smart. It was nominated for Chalmers Canadian Play Award. Sisters (1991) follows the events revolving around the burning of a residential school by a nun who worked at the school.

All Fall Down (1994) is a story about the daycare worker who is charged with sexual abuse and all associated consequences. She created a radio drama loosely based on her experience, Backbencher, that aired on CBC Radio One in 2010. The series was renewed by CBC for another 12 episodes, and the entire 20 episode series was broadcast on Radio One and the Sirius network in 2011.

List of plays On the Line (1979) The Fighting Days (1985) Ikwe (TV Movie, 1986) The Occupation of Heather Rose (1987) Memories of You (1989) Sisters (1991) All Fall Down (1994) The Glace Bay Miners' Museum (1996) (based on the novel by Sheldon Currie, which was separately adapted for the film Margaret's Museum) Corker (1999) Chimera (2007) Messenger (2015)

Electoral history