Letter from Jared Shore, Calgary to Mayor Farkas, expressing disappointment and disgust with the decision to raise the Palestinian flag, for a non existent country and for terrorism, November 14, 2025

Mayor Farkas and City Council,

I cannot express to you my disappointment in the decision to raise the Palestinian flag at City Hall later this month. I am equally flabbergasted by the manoeuvring that seemingly took place, to facilitate this by changing the date to coincide with an actual meaningful date for Palestinians. Perhaps it's worth noting that the originally scheduled date of Nov 30, is the annual commemoration of the 850,000 Jews who became refugees when they were forced out of the Arab world and Iran.

What is wrong with us in a society when we are raising the flag of a non-country that hasn’t held a democratic election in 20 years, that continues to hold the bodies of dead civilians hostage, whose leaders have stolen billions of dollars in our hard earned foreign aid, and who unleashed the most deadly and vicious attack on our Democratic ally just over two years ago? Two years ago they were raping Israeli women and murdering young children and the parents and grandparents, taking hundreds hostage, and now we are raising their flag.

It is one thing to support the plight of ordinary Palestinians, who may seek a future of coexistence with their Israeli neighbours, and it is wholeheartedly another to prop up and make excuses for their terrorist leaders who have spent decades, subjugating and indoctrinating their people to a future of martyrdom.

Palestine has no freedom of religion, no freedom of assembly, and no freedom of press. The honouring of this flag is above all, a betrayal of Canadian values. Only today we heard from the Director of CSIS, who expressed enormous concern over the antisemitic radicalization of Canadian youth. I’d like council to ask themselves, when we honour a terror state, what do we expect our youth to learn? Who among you is surprised that we have a radicalization problem?

It is well known that there is decades-long animus between our Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Israel. Recognition by our Prime Minister of a Palestinian state, is not built on principle or shared values, but rather to stick his thumb in the eye of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Why we have let his baggage carry over to poor decision-making on our city streets is beyond me. This will be a stain on our city, and let it be known just who this city has decided to honour with a flag raising at our most cherished public building. Calgarians should be rightfully, disgusted.

Jared Shore, Calgary, Alberta