@jizzlepizzle:
Wow this is not just disappointing-it’s extremely disturbing to see a public institution like VPL instituting policy to suppress expression of solidarity with Palestinians. I guess VPL stands for Very Prejudiced Library

Sunny Menon @menon_sunn71615:
Truly shameful policy. Libraries are supposed to help build communities. @VPL
appears to be trying foster racism and to sow division.
@_atvyas:
‘no keffiyehs at the library unless you speak a specific dialect’ what other hyper specific types of racism does @VPL management impose i’m curious.

2024: Frack Free BC Rally: Keffiyeh worn by a citizen opposing frac’ing at Premier Eby’s office in Vancouver. Photo by Will Koop, BC Tap Water Alliance
I have a large scarf collection, some look like Keffiyehs. I wear scarves often, even in summer because I live with damage done to my neck by a pedophile (to keep me quiet during his rapes). Scarves keep my neck warm, help me feel hidden, provide comfort like Linus and his security blanket, and help me cope with my fear of humans. What a vile hate-filled Zionist action by VPL/Vancouver City Council.
Palestinian Symbols Banned at Vancouver Public Library by Nathan Crompton and Andrei Mihailiuk ABC Vancouver
The Vancouver Public Library (“VPL”) has implemented a branch-wide ban on employees who show symbols of support for the Palestinian people.
According to internal workplace memos obtained by The Mainlander and interviews with employees, library management has been enforcing a ban on library workers’ ability to wear signs of support for Palestinians, including the watermelon pin and the keffiyeh.
The policy has been in place since July of 2024. One VPL worker, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of workplace reprisal, recounts being told by management that staff can only wear a pin or clothing item displaying a Palestinian flag if they speak “Palestinian Arabic.”
Keffiyehs have also been banned in the workplace, unless staff are able to declare they are wearing the scarf for “cultural reasons” when investigated by management and HR.Unfuckingbelievable! What vulgar racist rude management and HR! Would they ban Trump for his painted on orange monkey face?
This is based on the VPL’s Endorsement and Advocacy Policy and independent reports from staff. The policy was consolidated in a memo entitled “Culture attire at work” [sic] sent by VPL management to all employees on Oct. 31, 2024, and obtained by The Mainlander in full.
The Oct. 31 memo states: “If someone is wearing a keffiyeh for political reasons, this is not permitted at work; if we believe that this is happening, we will ask questions and will not permit it to continue. However, if someone is wearing it as cultural attire, this has always been permitted.”
The same memo also makes the claim that Palestinian religious and cultural symbols compromise workplace safety, and that for some staff it is “very hard and even threatening to see a keffiyeh worn at work.” Wow, that’s vile. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians are being mass murdered by wanted criminal Bibi Netanyahu, Israel and the USA to feed racism and steal billions of dollars worth of oil and gas, and a few VPL staff are afraid of a piece of fabric and fruit? FFS! How fucking idiotic, cruel and Zionist.
VPL management will tolerate the donning of Palestinian cultural attire in some instances even though the attire is threatening for some staff, says the memo, since the aim of the policy is to “balance competing rights and interests.”
Oh fuck off. It’s not that at all, it’s racism and hatred, pure and simple, and enabling genocide.
According to one VPL worker, the current controversy began when an influential rich racist Zionist?
member of the public filed an official complaint against an art exhibit shown at the Britannia Art Gallery that is couched in the VPL’s Britannia Branch in June 2024. The exhibition, entitled Still Here, showed an Indigenous figure in regalia, wearing a woven cedar bark hat, standing alongside another Indigenous figure wearing a keffiyeh. The Director of the Britannia Community Centre confirmed their support of the artist’s right to exhibit their work and to continue the show for its planned duration, according to a VPL worker.
For the remainder of the summer, pressure mounted against all staff regarding the enforcement of the Endorsement and Advocacy policy. Minutes from the VPL Board meeting of Sept. 25, 2024, show that Amir Abbey, President of CUPE 391, expressed concern about the Endorsement and Advocacy policy. Paraphrasing Abbey’s presentation, the minutes read: “the Union believes the employer [has] utilized an arbitrary and punitive approach towards staff who were wearing symbols representing the Palestinian cause. The Union asked that the Board consider the impact of the implementation and enforcement of this policy on staff.”
VPL Appointments and ABC Council
Several Vancouver institutions have undergone a pro-Israel shift because of mega Zionistiche Fascista donations that come with freedom of expression strangling conditions?
since the October 2022 election of Mayor Ken Sim and his ruling ABC Vancouver party to City Council. Shortly after the municipal election, City Council voted to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) definition of antisemitism
bad bad bad bad bad racist ignorant fuckers on city council
in November 2022.
The IHRA definition of antisemitismis intentionally genocide-enabling
and conflates critiques of the state of Israel with antisemitism, which means that any critique of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine is labeled antisemitism, and therefore subject to repression and censorship. Vancouver was one of the first municipalities in Canada to approve the IHRA definition.

Numerous Jewish groups have spoken out against the IHRA definition of antisemitism. In a press release sent to The Mainlander, Sid Shniad, founding member of the Vancouver chapter of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, says that,
“Responding to instances of antisemitism does not require a special definition. Antisemitism is a form of racism that should be addressed the same way we respond to other forms of racism, such as Islamophobia or anti-Black racism.”
Shniad continues: “The IHRA definition includes eleven examples of anti-Semitism, seven of which relate to Israel and Zionism. These examples serve to conflate criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism. Jewish identity and Judaism are distinct from Zionism. Furthermore, a significant and growing number of Jews are joining movements in support of Palestinian liberation.”Most Zionists are not even Jewish, they’re extremely blood thirsty evangelical fake Christians wanting Palestinians murdered to feed their white Hitler-like supremacy
Vancouver remains one of the few BC municipalities to decline growing calls for a ceasefire. Mayor Sim has refused to explain why, even as he was approached and asked by a descendant of a passenger on the Komagata Maru at a February 2024 public apology for “past” imperial violence.Wanna bet Zionists gave him big chunk(s) of cash in an offshore account? That’s how Zionists “handle” politicians in the USA, Canada, Germany, UK and more.
The year 2023 saw a gradual ABC-led transition within public institutions in Vancouver, including the purging of a trustee from the VPL Board of Trustees. Melody Ma, an active member of the board, was controversially terminated in December 2023 at the end of her first term.
Ma was recommended for a second two-year term renewal by the Board’ governance committee, but the City’s nomination subcommittee interfered. Shortly after her termination she was replaced by an ABC party insider.
At issue was her support for the City of Vancouver’s Living Wage Policy, which ABC city council voted to scrap in January 2023. Ma was alone in endorsing a continuation of the policy within the VPL, when the library board voted to “harmonize” library policy with the city’s decision to scrap the living wage. She believes that alongside her advocacy for Chinatown, the living wage debate played a role in her termination. FOI requests have been declined to date, stating that no records exist for the nomination subcommittee.
More recently, longtime VPL Trustee Abeer Yusuf was also phased out of her VPL Board trusteeship after not being recommended for re-election this past November 2024.
Abeer was the only Muslim trustee serving on the Board. She was in her sixth year on the board, and was among the youngest VPL trustees to serve, with one two-year term remaining in her maximum eight-year trusteeship. Yusuf has been vocal about Palestine in the past.
Like Yusuf, Ma has also spoken out and has raised humanitarian aid to help rebuild a bombed public library in Gaza. When it comes to the current VPL policy against symbols of Palestinian solidarity, Ma says, in an interview with The Mainlander:
“For an institution that is supposed to be for learning and freedom of speech, this policy represents a case of using too big of a hammer and applying that policy inappropriately.”
Staff at VPL have also expressed concern about the loss of diverse perspectives on the Board and the authority the Board has to circumvent previous Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives. In an audio meeting with staff on Jul. 16, 2024, Chief Librarian and CEO of the VPL, Christina de Castell, commented on the extent to which the Board can influence the VPL’s policies and values, according to a VPL worker interviewed by The Mainlander. When asked about the risk of a racist Board in the future, the worker said de Castell responded, “our role is no longer to raise voices that are marginalized.”Fuckers!
Austerity and Workplace Tensions
Internal developments at the VPL come in the wake of a long and acrimonious negotiation between library staff and management. Shortly after threatening strike action, CUPE 391 members ratified a new collective agreement in May 2024. This agreement expires this month.
Tensions at the VPL could be related to budget austerity at the municipal level. Mayor Ken Sim’s austerity approach to governance has involved freezing budgets for most departments except the police, who have continued to receive significant funding increases. During the 2022 municipal election Sim argued in favor of using the VPL’s “basic services” to generate new revenue streams, portending a renewed neoliberal assault on the VPL’s model of free public services at the library.
Sim and ABC’s austerity approach has led to a deeper reliance on charity and the private sector at VPL and elsewhere.

This might help explain the banning of Palestinian support symbols except for religious and cultural reasons, given that two prominent VPL donors – the Diamond Foundation and the Wosk Family – either donate to or have ties with Birthright and Israel Bonds, respectively.
Critics of Sim’s austerity have long worried that basic services would be sacrificed in order to fund already-bloated policing infrastructures throughout the city. In the current City budget the VPL was not granted its request for an additional $450K to operate, yet VPD’s $12M increase was approved. The additional VPL funding would have allowed the VPL to meet adequate staffing levels and prevent branch closures. Numerous closings have already taken place this past year, and 2025 budget austerity will mean reduced hours in the new year for some branches.
Whose Free Speech?
VPL’s censorious actions against staff are notable considering the library management’s previous grandstanding in favor of freedom of expression. In late 2018, the library hosted a talk by Meghan Murphy, a figure notorious for her anti-trans/anti-sex worker writings and speeches. Though the talk was condemned by LGBTQ+ groups across the country, the VPL Board proceeded with the event, merely updating its room booking policies, and stating the following: “in keeping with its value of intellectual freedom, the Library will not restrict freedom of expression beyond the limits prescribed by Canadian law.”

The VPL’s decision drew ire, even from the Vancouver Pride Society – an institution that itself has been accused of setting a low bar in the face of ongoing genocide – which responded by banning the VPL from its 2019 parade. Anybody wondering if the new room booking policy would have prevented Murphy’s previous booking got their answer the following year, when VPL board members approved hosting yet another panel discussion debating trans rights and featuring Murphy.
Conclusion
VPL is not the first workplace to crack down on pro-Palestinian employees.
Canada saw a wave of censured, suspended, and fired workers following Israel’s intensified campaign of genocide since October 7, 2023. Since then, the state of Israel has deepened their longstanding illegal occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank, committing what is widely decried as the 21st century’s worst act of mass genocide and social cleansing to date. More than 46,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in 15 months of bombing, and the total number of Palestinian lives lost almost certainly triples that figure by now.
Genocide Interlude
End Genocide Interlude
VPL’s actions suggest that intellectual freedom is a fair-weather friend when coupled with austerity. If a revenue source is threatened – be it room rental fees or donations from Zionist groups – VPL will respond in whatever way that keeps the budget balanced and the status quo intact. As an institution, the VPL has joined the call for Truth and Reconciliation and implemented the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
But contrary to the principles enshrined in these documents and commitments, the institution has stopped short of allowing its own staff to highlight wrongdoing perpetrated by settler-colonial regimes.
Note: VPL media relations was asked for comment but did not reply by deadline.
***

How quickly our species forgets the evil of the Nazis, fascism, and the rich and their greed.
People across the world fail to realize that Zionism, Netanyahu and USA will not stop after they’ve wiped Muslims out. Their mass murder plan is coming for all of us that they hate.

Speaking out, standing up to evil no matter the sacrifice to self, standing up with others standing up and supporting them in times of abusive crisis like in the clip below, solidarity is the only way to conquer hideous racist genocidaire assholes like VPL management, Vancouver City C0uncil, Biden, Blinken, Herr Harper and his feeble ugly racist Pierre Poilievre, the raging orange idiot, Musk, RFK Jr, Rosalie Abella, Irwin Cotler, B’nai Brith, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
Séamus Malekafzali @Seamus_Malek:
Look at all of these fucking cowards smirking and making faces while their own colleague is dragged out of the room by police. Journalistic solidarity is a lie.
@SocialKamel:
Shame on the other journalists for not walking out after a colleague gets arrested for asking a question in a free speech country.
@mdalkldi1918:
“Why are not in the Hague?”
A worthy question that deserves an answer, Blinken should be an inmate to the war criminal Netanyahu behind bars.
@ruthwildebrophy:
Shame on the rest of the press for not standing with him .
@willy_lowry:
Sam Husseini forcibly removed from the briefing room after interrupting Blinken’s final press conference. @TheNationalNews
Tanausu Unchained @TanausuX:
This is what happens when you ask the wrong question in Russia.
Sorry, not Russia. US.

@HotSpotHotSpot:
BREAKING: Reporter Sam Husseini @samhusseini is arrested and dragged out of a press briefing by Blinken for asking “Why aren’t you in The Hague?”
@mgraz_b:
The Fucked up Land of the “Free” where Journalists get arrested for asking questions…
Yeah, go and enjoy your fucked up “freedom”.
Sam Husseini@samhusseini:
I was seriously manhandled but I’m back home… thanks for all support folks.Glad you are ok, and home again. What a hellish experience, but proves to the world how vital your questions are.
My intention was to ask tough questions at every opportunity during the news conference which State personnel obviously cut short:
- Was the point of the May 31 announcement to block implementation of the May 24 ICJ order?
- Why do you refuse to recognize the Geneva conventions as applying to Gaza?
- Everyone from Amnesty International to the ICC accuses Israel of extermination and genocide. Why are you not in the Hague?
- Why was your step father Pisar connected to both Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein?
- Miller here pretends not to know about the Hannibal directive – do you know about the Hannibal directive?
- Why do you not even acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons?
I have written about each of these subjects and will continue to do so via http://husseini.org

