‘I can’t fathom giving Odesa notice while Ukrainians are fighting for their country and lives,’ said Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung
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A councilor is taking issue with Vancouver’s plan to notify sister city Odesa about the status of that relationship while war rages in Ukraine.
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City council is due to meet this week to approve a new “friendship city” framework that would replace existing sister-city relationships around the world, which include the Ukrainian port city.
A staff report recommends the city notify the five sister cities — Odesa, Yokohama, Edinburgh, Guangzhou and Los Angeles — that they have two years to apply as a friendship city instead.
Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung notes that the sister-city review was started last September, while Russia invaded Ukraine in February — long before the report was wrapped up last month.
“I can’t fathom giving Odesa notice while Ukrainians are fighting for their country and lives, or not respecting legacy nature of current sister cities,” wrote Kirby-Yung on Twitter Sunday. “So I will put an amendment forward to strike.”
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The pivot to friendship cities is aimed at making the relationships time-limited and “focused on achieving defined goals and objectives,” said the staff report.
It would include “a review of the status of current sister cities, and suggestions for updating the gendered language of the program.”
Yes, council is being asked to take issue with the term “sister” to describe the civic relationships. The report notes that, “given Vancouver’s long-standing commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, it is a good time to update the term ‘sister city’ to a more inclusive, gender-neutral name.”
The report notes Odessa was the first city with which Vancouver formed a sister-city relationship, and that too was at a time of war. It was designed to offer humanitarian aid during World War II.
Agreements were made with Yokohama in 1965, Edinburgh in 1978, Guangzhou in 1985 and LA in 1986. With the exception Guangzhou, the local friendship societies that helped form the partnerships have dissolved, leaving city staff to maintain the sister-city protocols.
The new relationships would lean on local non-profits for the work of maintaining the relationship and would need to be renewed every five years.
“There is a trend towards developing relationships that are project or goal-oriented, time-limited and community driven,” read the report.