Dan Fumano: Internal documents illustrate how the Israel-Gaza conflict has created difficult discussions and divisions within the Vancouver Public Library — as it has in countless other organizations since October 2023.
At an all-staff online video meeting last summer, the Vancouver Public Library’s chief executive fielded a series of pointed questions from employees about what kinds of political symbols were allowed on the job and which were banned.
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One staff member asked the VPL’s then-CEO and chief librarian, Christina de Castell, about employees being instructed not to wear watermelon pins, and asked whether the policy prohibited wearing any national symbols.
“Pins that have a political symbol and representing personal beliefs are not appropriate to wear in the workplace,” de Castell replied, according to a transcript of the video call. “For poppies and peace signs, it’s quite rare to hear someone saying they’re political or polarizing, although this happens with poppies from time to time.”
Staff had more questions. Could they wear Canadian flags? Why did the library allow displays about Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion, but not about conflicts in other countries? Was it OK to wear a pin opposed to racism or apartheid as general concepts? Is it OK to wear religious symbols, like crosses, as jewelry?
One staffer asked why library staff were encouraged to display the rainbow pride flag during Pride Week and wear orange shirts on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, if political expression wasn’t allowed. The reason, de Castell explained, is the VPL will only publicly advocate issues — like truth and reconciliation or LGBT rights — where the board has “an established and documented position.”
The week after the call, de Castell followed up with a Q&A document for staff to “help guide your discussion and behaviour around political advocacy at VPL.”
The library should be welcome to everyone in the community, and staff members wearing watermelon pins at work have made some feel “unwelcome,” de Castell wrote. “This choice and related behaviours are hurting the public and your colleagues and are creating a negative working environment.”
The meeting transcript and followup message is part of a collection of documents obtained through a freedom of information request recently and released through the city’s website. The 196-page package, which includes dozens of emails and internal documents as well as public complaints, illustrate how the Israel-Gaza conflict created difficult discussions and divisions within the Vancouver Public Library — as it has in countless other organizations, both public and private sector, around the world since October 2023.
![VANCOUVER, BC - SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 - Chief Librarian, Christina de Castell at Vancouver Public Library (VPL) in Vancouver, BC, Sept. 26, 2018. Recent enhancements, including the highly-anticipated publicly accessible rooftop garden, in addition to new community gathering spaces, rentable meeting rooms with beautiful garden and city views, a reading room, exhibition spaces, an 80-seat theatre, and outdoor terraces. (Arlen Redekop / PNG staff photo) (story by Kevin Griffin) [PNG Merlin Archive]](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/vancouversun/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/png09025n-sexdollbrothel.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=-0qgPHuUruA7BakrL9B59w)
The watermelon symbol, with the same red-green-black colour scheme as the Palestinian flag, has become the subject of controversy in several workplaces, including Canada’s House of Commons where Speaker Greg Fergus
NDP MP Heather McPherson’s wearing of a watermelon pin as a potential violation of House rules.
The VPL announced last October that de Castell had resigned after seven years of leading the library, to pursue research interests. There is no indication that her departure is related to the discussion around workers wearing watermelon pins. She formally left the organization earlier this month.
The VPL’s interim chief librarian and CEO, Dawn Ibey, said that the library’s policies, as explained in that July video call, are “set up to ensure that our employees have a safe and healthy workplace, free from bullying, harassment and discrimination, and so that our public feels welcome to use VPL facilities.”
“As a public library, our role is to educate and provide information so that the public can make their own decisions about things,” Ibey said. “We need to do that in a way that is non-partisan and unbiased, and we need to maintain that trust from our public, and our policies help us set that expectation.”
The VPL is still having “continuing conversations” on this subject, Ibey said. “These are very complex issues, and we keep a dialogue with staff open.”
It’s to be expected that within a diverse organization with more than 800 employees that there will be a range of opinions, Ibey said.
On July 16, a member of the public wrote to the VPL: “I am so upset to learn that you have banned your staff from wearing watermelons or Palestine flags in solidarity against the horrible holocaust occurring in Gaza. Please reconsider this Fascist decision. It doesn’t suit you. Or shouldn’t suit a library. Shame.”
One librarian forwarded the complaint to the VPL’s information services supervisor group, calling it “extremely concerning” and asking if it should be forwarded to the library’s communications department, saying: “They may wish to be aware if there is a conversation happening online connecting VPL to genocide denial or censorship.”
Former VPL trustee Melody Ma said based on what she hears from current library staff, “there’s definitely a feeling of discord around being censored. … What I’m hearing is that, internally, staff are afraid and stressed out.”
Ma’s time as a VPL trustee ended in December 2023 when, although the board supported her reappointment for another term, city council’s nomination committee chose against it. She believes this was related to her public criticism of ABC, the majority party on city council.
Ma described the banning of Palestinian symbols as “a direct assault on intellectual freedom and freedom of expression, values at the very heart of libraries and librarianship.”
“As one of the largest library systems in Canada, the VPL, along with its workers, should be taking a vocal moral stance against the burning of books and the bombing of libraries in Gaza,” Ma said. “Ironically, by selectively silencing library workers in the face of such violent erasure of Palestinian knowledge, literature and culture, the VPL is taking a political position.”
The union representing library workers has raised its own concerns. At the VPL’s September board meeting, CUPE Local 391 president Amir Abbey spoke to express the union’s position that the employer had used “an arbitrary and punitive approach towards staff who were wearing symbols representing the Palestinian cause” and “created a working environment that has left staff feeling unsafe,” according to the meeting minutes.
Reached by phone, Abbey declined to be interviewed, and said he couldn’t comment other than to say: “We are currently dealing with this issue with VPL through the appropriate labour relations channels.”
The VPL board didn’t reply to a request for comment.