🍉 VanGran4Pal Community Newsletter (March 13, 2026)
Introduction
Sometimes it’s hard to even know where to begin… Whilst trying to wrap our heads around ever-escalating global events, we are trying even harder to stay connected, united and supportive of each other. Friends have been reflecting with community for Ramadan and celebrating International Women’s Day, persevering in our joy amongst a backdrop of global turmoil and fear. We are staying connected to important events, and to each other.
If you’ve been completely burying your head in the sand (which we understand is needed sometimes), it is time to reconnect to the realities of all that is happening around us. Let yourself read long form content and explainers; make an effort to really understand what is happening and who is behind it. Feel disgust, sadness and anger, and acknowledge that you feel those things because you are human. The atrocities taking place, without accountability or justice, are unimaginable. The gut-wrenching emotions the news induces can be turned into an extremely powerful motivator for taking action and forcing change if we let ourselves feel them. The state of the world is unacceptable, and we need to be VERY clear about that. We need to stay both educated and organized. We need to be motivated and make our voices heard. So take a breath, read the news, then channel your anger into direct and meaningful action. In the words of the great Mariame Kaba, "Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair".
As usual, scroll down for some actions you can take and events you can attend in the next fortnight.
In solidarity,
The VanGran crew
Actions you can take
They voted down the No More Loopholes Act and picked the side of war crimes. Email your MP.
Yesterday MPs voted down the No More Loopholes Act and picked the side of war crimes.
MPs had a real opportunity to turn rhetoric into action and align Canadian arms exports with human rights and international law. Instead, they protected the U.S. loophole.
We are disappointed. We are angry. And we are watching. See the vote breakdown here.
If your MP voted for this bill, thank them.
If they didn’t, tell them: we saw your vote, and we will remember it.
Regardless of this outcome, we demand action on Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli atrocities are continuing. Canada must do everything it can — including sanctions and divestment — to force Israel to stop its ongoing genocide.
Email your MP now. Let them know we are not deterred.
Petition the Government to enforce international law!
Please sign onto MP Salma Zahid's petition to the Government of Canada to take concrete actions to hold Israel accountable and enforce international law. Closes for signatures on March 18th - act now!
Upcoming Events
Al-Quds Day Rally & March | Today
Date & Location
📅 Today
⏰ 4:30 - 6:45 PM
About
The Road to Liberation Runs Through Al-Quds!
At this critical moment, as the historic oppressors—American empire and its illegitimate Zionist puppet—tighten their stranglehold on West Asia, the call to resistance echoes from the south of Lebanon to Iran, to the shores of Palestine and across the world. We answer the principled summons of the people of conscience across the globe to transform our rage into a unified, unyielding force and declare Al-Quds Day a day of global mobilization. This is a declaration that our resistance will not bow to the genocidal machinery funded by Western imperialism. Every bomb dropped and every siege imposed only hardens our resolve. The struggle for Al-Quds is the struggle against imperialism itself—a fight to reclaim the dignity of our Ummah from the clutches of colonial hegemony.
We call upon the masses, the workers, the students, and the free people of the world to flood the streets under the sacred banner of Al-Quds. Let the world witness our unwavering solidarity with the people in Palestine, in Lebanon, in Iran, Yemen and their defiance against US-backed terror. We march here on Turtle Island and in solidarity with our Indigenous comrades on unceded lands to sever the hand of the occupier and to affirm that Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea. Unite with us this Friday, March 13th, at 4:30 PM. Let your voice join the thunderous roar of the global intifada. The liberation of Al-Quds is inevitable, and it begins with our feet on the ground!
Light to-go Iftar boxes will be provided for attendees to enjoy on their way back home!
Atrocity Inc: How Israel sells its destruction of Gaza | March 19
Date & Location
📅 March 19, 2026
⏰ 7 PM
📍Emily Carr University: Rennie Hall
About
“Atrocity Inc: How Israel sells its destruction of Gaza” will be the first film in the Apartheid Awareness Movie Nights series.
In an exclusive new documentary, Max Blumenthal rips the cover off the media deceptions and atrocity hoaxes Israel pushed in the last two years of Genocide.
The Apartheid Awareness Movie Nights is one of the initiatives of AFC that aims at spreading awareness about the concept of Apartheid through film. There will be a focus on the Apartheid in South Africa, the Apartheid in Turtle Island, and the Apartheid in Palestine.
The Land Remembers - Yom Al Ard | March 22 & March 28
Art Build & Fundraiser
Date & Location
📅 March 22, 2026
⏰ 1:00 - 5:00 PM
📍1943 E Hastings St (Enter from Alley)
Rally & March
Date & Location
📅 March 28, 2026
⏰ 2:00 - 4:00 PM
📍Grandview Park
About
Join us to commemorate Yom Al Ard (Land Day), marking the 50th year since this historic event. On March 30, 1976 the Zionist government moved to make an unprecedented land grab which led to an eruption of protests and Palestinian resistance efforts.
Fifty years later, not much has changed - in fact, the Zionist entity has renewed its efforts with an ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing campaigns across all of Occupied Palestine.
Join us to reject the Western-backed Zionist terror on Palestinians (and the entire SWANA region) and to ground ourselves in community, focusing on land resistance from Turtle Island to Palestine.
Canadian complicity and duplicity on Palestine: Challenge it with boycott! | March 26
Date & Location
📅 March 26, 2026
⏰ 5:30 PM
📍1803 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC
About
RSVP to cpavancouver@gmail.com.
Suggested donation: $10 regular, $5 CPA members (no one turned away for lack of funds).
Etransfer to cpavancouver@gmail.com in advance (preferred) or pay at the door.
Special guest speaker zooming in will be Yves Engler, joining local community and BDS activists. Come out to Mark Palestinian Land Day and to learn more about the hypocrisy of successive Canadian governments and the recent victory in the ScotiaBank Elbit campaign.
Living Words: Multilingual Poetry event commemorating land and people through stories | March 30
Date & Location
📅 March 30, 2026
⏰ 5:45 - 8:30 PM
📍Grandview Church (1803 East 1st Ave, Vancouver, BC)
About
Join Weaving Our Worlds for an evening of multi-lingual poetry and cultural expression centering on the theme of land and resistance. This will be an evening of intimate poetry and storytelling featuring poets, spoken-word artists and comrades sharing in different language traditions without translation or adaptation into the colonial English language. Oral tradition, in preserving cultural and historical knowledge through generations, has been at the heart of many resistance struggles around the world.
Centering the Palestinian struggle for land and liberation, we invite you to explore the interrelation of our many experiences despite the oppression that threatens to disembody us from the land and people. We hope the poetry shared and time spent together serve as a balm in the face of raging fascism and imperialism.
This event commemorates Yom Al Ard يَوْم اَلْأَرْض (Palestinian Land Day). March 30th marks the anniversary of the 1976 killings of several Palestinians protesting Israel’s expropriation of land near Sakhnin in Galilee. This day not only commemorates the sumud of Palestinians but also the importance of the land to the survival of the Palestinian people and cultural heritage. The land knows no borders, and land connects us all.
This is a fundraiser with a suggested donation of $20-40+ and NOTAFLOF. All funds to Gaza.
Notes from Palestine: Justice and Collective Healing | April 10
Date & Location
📅 April 10, 2026
⏰ Doors 6:30 PM
📍The Norm Theatre (UBC)
About
As the genocide and violence in Palestine continues and global attention shifts, our responsibility to stand in solidarity remains. Join us to hear this conversation with Dr. Samah Jabr on mental health lessons from Palestine: Solidarity, Responsibility, and Practice in Contexts of Political Violence.
Dr. Samah Jabr @drsamahjabr is a Palestinian psychiatrist serving communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and former Head of the Mental Health Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health. She is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University and serves on the Scientific Committee of the Global Initiative Against Impunity for International Crimes and Serious Human Rights Violations. She consults internationally on mental health program development, with a focus on prisoners’ rights, suicide prevention, and historical trauma. For over two decades, she has advocated for the mental health and dignity of Palestinians, particularly survivors of torture and trauma. She is the author of several books, including Beyond the Frontlines, Sumud, Sumud in Times of Genocide, The Time of Genocide, and her latest, Radiance in Pain and Resilience.
Dr. Jabr will be joined by Caroline Abedrabboh, a local Palestinian health care worker, as well as Muhammad Sultan, a member of BC Physcians Against Genocide.
We are honored to hear the opening remarks by Jada-Gabrielle Pape (she/her). Jada is Coast Salish belonging to the Snuneymuxw and WSANEC nations. She is a mom, auntie, sister and daughter. Jada is a painter, Coast Salish weaver, bead worker, canoe puller, drummer and singer and has committed her life to humbly uplifting the teachings of her people. Jada finds hope in The Resistance and is unwavering in her solidarity with Palestine. She is currently fundraising to complete a feature length documentary called From the Salish Sea to Palestine: kindling solidarity and stories of shared resistance. Read more about Jada’s work at @drawingwisdom_
Community Spotlights
Thank you so much to everyone who saw our feature last edition on The Gaza Community Partnership (GCP) and donated. In case you missed it last week, we're highlighting again this week.
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.
Book Club
Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano
Tracing five centuries of exploitation in Latin America.
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.
Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.
Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably.