Jennifer Hale

Councillor Jennifer Hale
Jennifer Hale
Member of the Council of Kerlile
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 August 2018
President	Joanna Greenwood
Preceded by	Cornelia Hale
Personal details
Born	Jennifer Eleonora Hale (1981-12-09) December 9, 1981 Maytown, Kerlile
Nationality	Kerlian
Political party	Reform Party
Other political affiliations	Liberal Party of Lauchenoiria
Spouse(s)	Josephine Alvarez
Children	Amelia Hale
Mother	Camila Wren Hale
Relatives	Cornelia Rosa Hale
Alma mater	University of Buttercity
Other names	Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez

Jennifer Eleonora Hale (born December 9th, 1981), known for a period as Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez, is currently the Hale family representative on the Council of Kerlile. Her predecessor and sister, Cornelia Hale, died in February 2018, however Jennifer did not take her seat until August 2018.

Using the name Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez, Hale was one of the commanders of the Lauchenoirian Resistance in the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War until the revelation of her true identity. She is married to Josephine Alvarez, former Lauchenoirian Foreign Secretary, which caused controversy in Kerlile due to EUDCA laws forbidding Councillors from marriage - however Kerlian courts later interpreted this as applying solely if the spouse is male.

Jennifer Hale has been publicly critical of the Kerlian regime, and has claimed that she was coerced into accepting her seat on the Council. She is a member of the Reform Party. It was announced in October 2018 that Hale was pregnant following IVF. She gave birth to a daughter, Amelia Hale, on the 27th April 2019.

Early Life

Jennifer was the youngest of two daughters, the eldest being her sister Cornelia Hale, who was eight years older. She was born in Maytown, Kerlile, a gated community where members of the Council of Kerlile spend the summer months in peacetime, and where daughters of Council members are raised. Jennifer is a direct descendant of Camila Letitia Hale, one of the founding mothers of Kerlile.

She attended the Maytown Academy for Girls reserved for daughters of Council members in Maytown until the age of thirteen. In the Council school, she would have learned about Kerlian culture and the workings of the Council, as well as standard subjects, even though her sister Cornelia was the primary Hale heir.

Kerlian Civil War

At the age of thirteen, Jennifer Hale disappeared in the second year of the Kerlian Civil War. It was later discovered that Hale took the name Sonja Viratnen, the name of a girl of her own age who was executed with her family for treason against the Kerlian state. As Sonja Viratnen, Hale joined the militant wing of the Democratic Kerlian State, the organisation attempting to overthrow the Kerlian government in the war.

She remained with DKS until the age of seventeen, when DKS was about to lose the war, and she fled across the border to Lauchenoiria, still using the name Sonja Viratnen. Under that name, she was granted asylum by the Lauchenoirian authorities, who refused all Kerlian extradition requests even though emigration was illegal in Kerlile.

Life in Lauchenoiria

While in Lauchenoiria, Hale attended the University of Buttercity, studying veterinary bioscience. Following her graduation in 2004, she began working at an animal shelter in the north of Yervia Province. In 2006, she met Josephine Alvarez, who visited the animal shelter as part of her animal rights campaign while running for the federal parliament.

In 2007, she moved to Buttercity with Alvarez, and began to work for the Lauchenoirian Animal Protection Agency. In 2010, Hale married Alvarez, and began to use the name Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez (and was often known only as Sonja Alvarez). The couple announced they were planning to adopt in early 2018.

Second Lauchenoirian Civil War

In 2018, following the outbreak of the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War, Hale became one of the primary commanders of the Lauchenoirian Resistance under the name Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez, a position she held until the revelation of her true identity by the Kerlian authorities.

Under the name Viratnen-Alvarez, she was the main commander of the operation in the early days of the war when the Resistance captured Annatown from Junta forces. She was also responsible for the so-called 'liberation' of Ginsap Prison, where her wife Josephine Alvarez was being held as a political prisoner.

Her role in the civil war was highly controversial, with some claiming that she was responsible for a number of 'terrorist attacks' in various cities, including Melissa City, and Buttercity. Her opponents accused her of war crimes, while her supporters claim she was not behind these activities at all.

On the Council of Kerlile

Jennifer Eleonora Hale took the Council of Kerlile oaths on the 12th August 2018, and became the fifth Councillor Hale of Kerlile. Her first act as Councillor was to introduce a Council bill to instruct President Joanna Greenwood to accept Sanctaria's offer to conduct peace negotiations to end the Second Lauchenoirian Civil War.

In September 2018, following the signing of the Haven Accords which ended the Lauchenoirian Civil War, Hale has publicly called upon the Council to introduce democratic reforms and put an end to the mass arrests of political dissidents. Hale had a public feud with Councillor Anita Patel, who was in charge of the Council's involvement in the war in Lauchenoiria.

Family Life

While using the name Sonja Viratnen, Hale married Josephine Alvarez in Lauchenoiria. Under Kerlian law, Councillors and their daughters are not permitted to marry. As a result, and also due to her use of a false identity, it was uncertain whether or not the marriage is valid; however the Kerlian courts ruled that the law only forbids marriage to men.

As a child, Hale's relationship with her elder sister Cornelia was considered highly strained. Councillor Rebecca Arnott has claimed on several occasions since Cornelia's death that Cornelia's tormenting of Jennifer was the reason Jennifer left the country, and that Hale is in fact dedicated to Kerlile.

Controversy

Some supporters of the Lauchenoirian Resistance do not believe that Sonja Viratnen-Alvarez and Jennifer Hale are the same person, citing a 'Kerlian conspiracy'. The evidence does not support this view. Others believe that Hale deliberately infiltrated the Resistance as part of a Kerlian strategy to gain information and sabotage the Resistance's war plans. Hale denies this.