---
title: "Jewish groups respond to Vancouver results as council shifts left"
description: "Jewish organizations in Vancouver are watching the new council's direction on public safety and Middle East issues after Pete Fry's election as mayor and Sean Orr's high-vote finish on October 17."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/jewish-community-response-council-october-20"
last_updated: "2026-10-20T17:58:17.482Z"
---

Jewish organizations in Vancouver said on October 20 that they are watching the new council's direction on public safety and Middle East issues, after the October 17 election produced a mayor and council dominated by the Green Party and COPE. The reporting comes from The Canadian Jewish News.

[Pete Fry](/candidates/pete-fry) of the Green Party won the mayoral race with 47 per cent of the vote, according to unofficial results pending the City's official declaration. Incumbent Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver received 32 per cent. Voter turnout exceeded 43 per cent, higher than in 2022.

The new council has four Green Party councillors, four COPE councillors, one OneCity councillor, and one ABC Vancouver councillor. In 2022, ABC held seven of the ten council seats.

[Sean Orr](/candidates/sean-orr) of COPE received the highest vote count of any council candidate. In April 2025, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) issued a joint statement condemning a 2021 social media post by Orr that referred to a supposed "secret cabal of Jews" controlling city planners. CIJA also criticized a separate October 2023 post in which Orr accused Israel of committing genocide. Orr and his supporters have said the posts were sarcastic or taken out of context.

An independent investigation by Vancouver's Office of the Integrity Commissioner found in May that former mayor Ken Sim breached the city's code of conduct by publicly portraying Orr as antisemitic or supportive of terrorism. Jewish organizations at the time said their own complaint concerning Orr had been dismissed without a comparable public investigation.

According to candidate survey results publicized by Vote Palestine, eight of the eleven elected Vancouver mayoral and council candidates endorsed all or part of the Vote Palestine platform. Vote Palestine also reports that all nine elected Vancouver School Board trustees endorsed all or part of a related Parents 4 Palestine platform. These are Vote Palestine's own counts, based on its own candidate survey. Vote Palestine declared in a statement that the majority of the newly elected council is "committed to all our demands."

Community members quoted by The Canadian Jewish News had different reactions. Judy Shabtai said her main concern is whether the level of police protection under Sim will continue. David Berson urged patience, saying elected officials must serve all of Vancouver and that the new council must work across political divides.

Nico Slobinsky, CIJA's Pacific vice-president, posted on X to congratulate Fry and said he looked forward to working with the incoming mayor to protect all communities. Slobinsky cited a CIJA survey in which 69 per cent of Vancouver's Jewish community respondents said they had experienced an antisemitic incident.

Voters who want to follow how the new council acts can read the vote count by candidate at [/results](/results).

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