🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter (February 28, 2026)
Neighbours and friends,
We are still looking to expand our newsletter team! Working on the newsletter is a beautiful way to stay engaged, feel connected to the community and find hope among friends in trying times. As I write this, I am sitting with a neighbour and friend who would otherwise be a stranger, as we drink tea, share news, and put together this week’s newsletter for you all. Meanwhile, some other members of our newsletter team are taking a much-needed break after their hard work wrangling previous weeks’ updates. We hope to expand the team so we can continue to share the load in this way for a long time to come.
There are many different roles to fill, and you certainly don’t need to be a professional writer (though if you are that’s great)! Maybe you’re super plugged in to events and activities happening around the city and can help us make sure we don’t miss anything. Maybe you read a lot and have recommendations to share. Maybe you’re a skilled project manager with experience herding cats who can help us stick to our schedule! Maybe you don’t know exactly how you would contribute but want to help – if any of these sound like you, we would love to hear from you at vangran4palnewsletter@proton.me.
This week, we are celebrating some good news, with the announcement that Scotiabank has fully divested from Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, due to public pressure from multiple groups nationwide in a variety of actions, including monthly protests at the Commercial and Broadway Scotiabank by our neighbours at @retiredteachersdivestbc. We are so proud of our community, and everyone who worked together to make this happen. It is a powerful reminder of the real world impact of collective action. Let’s keep going.
Keep reading for events and actions coming up in the city this week, including a reminder that time is running out to email Taleeb Noormohamed and tell him to vote Yes on the No More Loopholes Act. With the revelation this week that Canada's international trade minister was warned and aware of the potential for Canadian arms to be used in Gaza through sale to the U.S., and chose to do nothing while ministers continued to mislead the public, it is vital that we continue to keep the pressure up.
In solidarity,
The VanGran4Pal team
Actions you can take
Last chance to email Taleeb Noormohamed. The second hour of debate on the No More Loopholes Act is scheduled on March 9th, with the vote on March 11th.
About
This is our critical opportunity to stop the flow of weapons and force the government to close this legal loophole once and for all. It's time to push MPs, including Taleeb Noormohamed, to pick a side: Will they continue to funnel unrestricted and unregulated arms to Trump’s illegal wars, ICE’s campaign of terror, and Israel’s ongoing genocide? Or will they listen to the Canadian public and ensure that Canadian military exports are aligned with international law?
Upcoming Events
All out for Palestine Rally and March | Today
Date & Location
đź“… Today, February 28
⏰ 2:00 - 4:00 PM
đź“Ť Grandview Park, Vancouver
About
Join us in the streets to demand justice for Palestine. Despite the ceasefire, violations continue by the zionist occupation, bombs keep falling, aid is blocked, and families remain under siege. The genocide has not stopped—it is ongoing, sustained by global silence and western imperialism. We refuse to look away!
Aggression is escalating across the West Bank, with intensified raids, displacement, and violence against civilians. Meanwhile, about 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners including children remain behind bars in Israel’s prisons, separated from their families and undergoing inhumane conditions.
We are also protesting the Israeli occupation's simultaneous attacks on Lebanon, land grab in southern Syria, and its strategic psyops in, and threats of war against, Iran.
We refuse to be silent. Demand a permanent ceasefire, an end to occupation, freedom for political prisoners, and full accountability for Israel's war crimes in the region.
No more crimes. No more impunity. Free Palestine!
Family Friendly Rally in Coquitlam | March 1
Date & Location
đź“… Sunday, March 1
⏰ 3:00 - 5:00 PM
đź“Ť Coquitlam City Hall, 3000 Guildford Way, Coquitlam
About
Every Sunday outside Coquitlam City Hall, come show your support for the people of Gaza, who are being bombed constantly and at this very minute! All eyes and hearts on Palestine!
Film Screening and Presentation: No Other Land | March 7
Date & Location
đź“… Saturday, March 7
⏰ Doors at 4:30 PM, Film at 5:00 PM
đź“Ť Rennie Hall, Emily Carr University, 520 E 1 Ave. Vancouver
About
We are honored to host a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary NO OTHER LAND. 🍉🇵🇸
This essential film offers an intimate look at the destruction of Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta, filmed over several years by a collective of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers.
Following the film, we will be joined by Asher Kirchner, an activist with CJV and IJV who was present in the region during the time of filming and has direct connections to the filmmakers. This is a rare opportunity for a firsthand perspective and community dialogue.
Plus, hear from local orgs about how we can connect the struggle in Palestine to the fights here at home: ICE raids, land defense, and more. This is about linking struggles and building power together.
Admission is free, but space is limited.
Here/After, Amulets in Ritual by Rawan Hassan
Date & Location
đź“… Running until March 21, 2026.
⏰ Noon - 5:00 PM (Tu/F/Sa), Noon - 7:00 PM (W/Th)
📍 Grunt Gallery, #116–350 East 2nd Ave. Vancouver
About
In Rawan Hassan’s solo exhibition, Here/After, Amulets in Ritual, she confronts the tenuous connection to hope in the face of the ongoing violent occupation in her homeland through a new series of tatreez-based work. These new works, a collection using protective amulet designs, moves stitch-by-stitch to close the gaps between acts of rebellion and fills the pauses with an invitation to convene together in the overwhelming limbo of distance and waiting for liberation. This exhibition does not argue the need and worth of protecting loved ones and instead Hassan imbues these pieces with a belief that beyond the Israeli occupation of Palestine, there is a deserving and unbound future for the Palestinian people that has always been worth fighting for, however you can, from wherever you are.
About the artist:
Rawan Hassan (she/her) is an interdisciplinary visual artist based on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, colonially known as “Vancouver”. Her works explore the complex relationship between preserving and evolving Palestinian craft traditions, such as tatreez (embroidery). She explores materials that embody the questions of what was and what could possibly be through textile-based artworks and drawings. Her hope, is that her practice might open up the conversations on Palestinian identity, grief, resilience, resistance against erasure, ongoing occupation, colonization and potential forms of Palestinian futurism. @oddbiscuit
Community Spotlights
Gaza Community Partnership
The Gaza Community Partnership (GCP) is a national coalition of local organizations working together to support Gazan evacuees and refugees, and all Palestinians currently living in Canada.
Despite ongoing community efforts and support, Gazans and Palestinians in Canada are faced with huge challenges: endemic poverty, discrimination, housing precarity, and all the traumas and complications associated with ongoing violence and dispossession.
Settlement and community agencies across the country express significant frustration with a fractured service and support landscape, lack of capacity, insufficient resources, intermittent action, and isolation.
The GCP is a coalition of organizations reaching across the country to work past these frustrations, to come together and to share resources and support.
Donate to directly support Gazan families in Canada.
Book Club
The Verso Book of Dissent
Revolutionary Words from Three Millennia of Rebellion and Resistance
A journey through time, place and revolutionary spirit. A truly inspiring read, offering a dose of what we all need in these times. Recommended by VanGran newsletter MVP Cherry.