🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter
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**Neighbours and Friends, **
Welcome back to another edition of our community newsletter. Thanks so much for reading along with us and staying engaged. You showing up truly matters and we are motivated by the 700 of you still reading this newsletter and engaging with its content.
Sometimes, it’s hard to even know what to say when we are so consistently horrified by the news. Please allow yourself time to bear witness to what is happening and to listen to the people of Palestine. Hold space for grief. Let it motivate you further into action. It can feel hopeless, and that is by design - we’re in the streets protesting genocide, and now protests are being stifled or stamped out. Governments ignore our petitions and the US vetoes ceasefire resolutions. And still we rise. Everyone who stands for humanity needs to speak louder and stand stronger than ever before. Here is a masterclass in interview response and important protest discussion.
Stay strong, stay united; so many struggles are inter-connected. Read on for the latest actions, events and charity needs.
Action Updates
It’s time to give Taleeb a Mandate for Action
🇨🇦 Canada is still arming Israel.
🇵🇸 Israel is still bombing Gaza.
Our demand: #ArmsEmbargoNow
Starting today, we need your help delivering a mandate letter to Taleeb's constituency office, demanding he do everything in his power to compel the Canadian government to impose a full and immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel. Remember, he works for us.
Visit armsembargonow.ca/mandate to print the letter and deliver one to Taleeb now!
Demand Scotiabank divest from genocide
💡** DID YOU KNOW?** Scotiabank is turning your everyday transactions into weapons of war?
💰✉️ Your direct deposit → their direct hits 🎯💀
💰 Your savings → their slaughter fund 🩸🏦
🤐 Your silence → more bodies piling up. ☠️
Time to close your account. ✂️🏦
Upcoming Events
Children’s Day for Gaza | June 8
📅 Sunday June 8, 2025
📍 Location: Holland Park
This Sunday on June 8, we'll have another day of kite making, face painting, colouring, and poster making! Join us for a family day of activities at Holland Park!
Mutual Aid Conversation and Workshop | June 9
🗓 Monday June 9, 2025
⏰ TIME 6 pm. Starts with light meal. Food will be put away and boxed at 6:30 pm so people remain masked.
📍1803 East 1st Ave. xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & səlilwətaɬ lands
**Click here for information and registration **
Mutual aid is an ethic in movements and communities to directly support each other’s needs to survive and thrive based in shared commitments to reciprocity in an unequal world. There are many examples of mutual aid in our communities today trying to undo this capitalist-colonial atomization: legal funds, eviction defense, tragedy & disaster response, food & clothes distribution, health care provision, and more.
Mutual aid draws on a living legacy of sustained cooperation and resistance by Black, Indigenous, racialized, colonized, houseless, criminalized, disabled, and queer and trans communities. Many traditions of mutual aid are actively targeted and repressed, such as the colonial Potlatch Ban against Indigenous communities of the North West coastal regions, or the attempts by the FBI to disrupt the Black Panthers’ Breakfast for Children Program, or state injunctions against community-led harm reduction efforts. Mutual aid within these struggles is a radical affirmation of care, dignity, and justice.
Print for Migrant Justice | June 13
🗓 Friday, June 13, 2025, at 6 pm
📍2337 Main St. xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh & səlilwətaɬ lands
Join us at Anti-Social Skateboard Shop for an evening of silkscreen printing and henna to support the Migrant Justice Fundraiser (see story highlight for more info).
💸Pay what you can. Bring cash.
👚Bring your own clothes to print on or fabric! 👭Bring your friends, dates, and neighbours!
🦋The Migrant Justice Fundraiser is raising funds to support two of our beloved comrades who are facing violence from the Canadian immigration system as it escalates its racist attack on migrants.
Marcia and an unnamed comrade are both facing mountainous legal fees as they navigate Canada's racist system. All proceeds from this event and the ongoing auction are aiming to raise 20k to support our comradess legal fees and basic needs. We have already raised over 13k! Come screenpring and contribute to this community fundy!
😷Masked event (provided at door).
National Day of Action | June 14
🗓️ Saturday, June 14, 2025
📍Scotiabank Clayton Market, Surrey (corner of 64th Ave & Fraser Hwy)
⏰1-3pm
Disclose. Divet. We will not stop, we will not rest! 🍉
June 14 is the national day of action to pressure Scotiabank to divest from Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons manufacturer. Scotiabank is one of Elbit Systems' investors globally, therefore profiting off of the current genocide. We call on Scotiabank to fully divest from Elbit Systems and this genocide now!
**Parents4Palestine Free Pancake **
Breakfast & Storytime | June 14
⏰ Saturday June 14, 10AM–12PM
📍Grandview Church, 1803 E 1st Ave, Vancouver, BC
🥞 This free event will feature a pancake breakfast and engaging storytime sessions that celebrate Palestinian culture, foster a sense of community, and encourage solidarity. Join us for a morning of connection, learning, and joy as we create meaningful spaces for children and families to come together.
Tickets: http://link.parents4palestine.ca/June14
📚Storytime for Palestine - Join the Campaign
In June, we're organizing a collective Story Time for Palestine across communities, creating joyful and educational spaces for children to learn about Palestinian culture and solidarity.
💌 Want to host a story time in your own community?
Email us at storytime4palestine@gmail.com — we can support with books, supplies, and space rentals. Let’s build this together 💚
Donation Campaign
Parents for Palestine YVR is officially launching their Sustaining Membership Campaign for the Gaza Soup Kitchen’s new location in Al-Nuseirat, South Gaza 🇵🇸🍲 Read on for a message from them about this project:
“Thanks to your generous support during our Silent Auction, we were able to fund 4 full days — and partially fund a 5th day — of operations at this new kitchen! 💚
As we promised the community yesterday, we are committed to doing more.
This new location in Al-Nusairat feeds 280–350 families daily, and it costs $1,370 CAD/day to operate. A dedicated group is already sponsoring one day a week — now we’re aiming to fund a second day each week, and we need your help!
👉 If 137 of us commit to $10/week, we can sustain another day a week of life-saving meals for families in crisis.”
Click here to join the community in supporting the Gaza soup kitchen
Contribute to the Newsletter
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With gratitude and in solidarity,
Your Neighbours
Van Gran 4 Palestine
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