OneCity Vancouver Statement on the Vote Palestine Pledge

OneCity's values are simple: safety, equity, and opportunity for everyone. In 2024, our party spoke publicly about the attacks in Israel and the war in Gaza. As candidates, we think Vancouverites deserve to know where we stand now.

Candidates in this election have been asked to sign the Vote Palestine pledge. It has four parts, and we want to answer each of them plainly.

1. Condemn the genocide

We do. OneCity's candidates and campaign team unequivocally and unanimously condemn the genocide in Gaza, as we condemn the genocides everywhere, including in the Darfur region of Sudan and against the Rohingya in Myanmar. We condemn the regimes that carry them out, and we commit to consistent, vocal solidarity with people living under oppression.

2. Sign the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge

This pledge, convened by an American non-profit, asks signatories to commit to three things encompassed in an ‘apartheid-free community’: freedom, justice, and equality for Palestinians and all people; opposition to racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and working to end all support for Israel's apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.

When we sat down together to talk it through, the first two came easily. They are already our values. The third is where we stopped.

We stopped for two reasons. First, we want to act within the limits of our authority. Second, we heard from people in this city who told us this language would make them feel targeted rather than heard. We take that seriously.

To this end, we recognize there is a role the city can play in where it puts its procurement dollars, as we have set out below. It is an honest statement of what a municipal government can do, and a commitment to the safety of everyone who calls Vancouver home.

3. Cut ties with Israeli institutions

OneCity has already committed to procurement policies that put local and ethical purchasing first. In practice, that means we must ensure, to the extent possible, city dollars will not flow to regimes states complicit in genocide, either in Israel or anywhere in the world.

We will work with City staff to see that contracts are awarded to local businesses or Canadian companies. Where we have room to act, we will.

4. Recognize the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association's framework on anti-Palestinian racism

Anti-Palestinian racism is real. The silencing of people who speak out against the genocide is a growing problem around the world, and it is happening here. We will defend the right of Vancouverites to protest, and we will never silence advocacy for rights, freedoms, and justice, at home or abroad.

We condemn racism in all forms, including anti-Palestinian racism. We reiterate our alarm and outrage at the surge of anti-Palestinian, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate and stand in solidarity with all of those affected. Every Vancouverite, regardless of race, religion, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, or place of origin, deserves to have their rights protected and to feel safe and included within their community.

Our job, if we are elected, is to make every person in this city feel safe and welcome. We are not confident that adopting an external framework gets us there. We would rather do that work here, in Vancouver, with Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Jewish Vancouverites all at the table to establish policies to combat anti-Palestinian, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic racism.

We share these commitments as a team, and most of them line up with the Vote Palestine pledge. Where we differ, we have tried to say why. We also acknowledge the people who disagree with us, and the limits of what a city can control. Our goal is to build a Vancouver where everyone is welcome and feels safe.

Signed,

Iona Bonamis 陶思穎, Frances Bula, Jarrett Hagglund, Lucy Maloney, Caitlin Stockwell
Rory Brown, Steve Cardwell, Christopher Lee 李基鵬, Krista Sigurdson
Dominic Denofrio, Tyler Petersen