The Palestinian Canadian Congress is a national, non-partisan voice for Palestinian Canadians — advancing Palestinian identity, defending rights, and holding Canadian institutions accountable. Our mandate reaches Palestinians in Canada, in exile, and across Historic Palestine, and we pursue it entirely through Canadian advocacy.
Many Palestinian Canadian activists and Community Groups collaborated in 2006 under the “Palestinian National Voice” initiative. The community sought to build a national voice to tell its story and defend its rights. The community followed a transparent, consultative, and democratic process to develop common principles and a national framework. The community held a series of conferences, beginning in Mississauga in Jan. 2007 (Founding Principles defined), Ottawa in May 2007 (Mission defined), Hamilton in October 2007 (Membership defined), and then Montreal in May 2008 (Bylaws defined and first board elected). These efforts led to founding the Palestinian Canadian Congress on June 1, 2008.
To identify, articulate, defend and pursue the rights and interests of the Palestinian people in Canada, in exile, and in all of Historic Palestine.
PCC Charter
Version 4 – 2026-09-01
Founding Principles
The Founding Principles are not statements of sentiment. Under our By-laws, the National Council holds exclusive authority over the Congress’s political positions and direction — and that authority is constrained by these principles. A position that contradicts them is out of order, no matter who proposes it. They are the fixed point around which everything else is debated. Registering as an elector will require agreeing with them. That is deliberate. It is the one thing we ask of everyone who joins.
Palestinian Canadians are a diverse community that is integral to both Canadian society and the broader Palestinian people. We are not visitors in this country, and we are not separated from our people. We are fully both, and we refuse to be asked to choose.
We respect and support the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and act consistently with the values enshrined in it. The rights we claim for our community are the rights the Canadian Charter guarantees to everyone in Canada.
As a conduit of the Palestinian Canadian community throughout Canadian society, we advance the political, civil, social, cultural and economic interests of Palestinians in Canada — in Parliament and legislatures, in institutions, in the media, in workplaces and on campuses.
We affirm, advocate for and commit to the historic rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and equality on their ancestral lands.
We affirm the inalienable right of return and compensation for all Palestinian refugees expelled from their lands and homes — those in the diaspora, those in neighbouring countries, and those internally displaced. That right is held collectively by the Palestinian people and individually by every Palestinian. Because it belongs to the refugees themselves, it is not available to be abrogated, ceded, negotiated away or otherwise compromised by any individual or entity, Palestinian or otherwise, in the context of any political solution.
We represent Palestinian Canadians regardless of their faith, and we adopt or advocate no religious or spiritual belief or practice of our own. That does not narrow our advocacy: we defend the civil and human rights of Palestinians, including the right to practise, celebrate and express their religious and spiritual traditions freely, without discrimination, interference or unequal treatment.
We do not endorse or support any political party or political faction in Palestine. Our independence is what lets us represent the whole community. It does not stop us from building relationships with, or sending delegates to, international and pan-Palestinian organizations, conferences and events.
Those who hold office in the Congress — councillors, trustees and officers — commit to govern responsibly and sustainably, to promote constructive internal dialogue, to accept the outcome of democratic decision-making, to anchor their advocacy in the Canadian context, and to prioritize unity in purpose and action. Unity does not require uniformity of views or strategies. It requires a shared commitment to the Palestinian Canadian community, to this organization, and to these principles.
We promote the living culture and heritage of the Palestinian people, and inform the Canadian public about Palestinian human rights.
We work to change Canadian law and policy — so that the rights of Palestinian Canadians are protected in practice and not only in principle, and so that Canada’s conduct abroad is consistent with international law.
We hold Canadian elected officials, public servants and public institutions to their existing human rights obligations — in the laws they pass, the policies they administer, and their conduct toward our community. We press them to name anti-Palestinian racism, and to counter and eliminate the bias and discrimination directed against Palestinian Canadians.
No external body — governmental, partisan, factional or financial — directs the positions of the Congress. We disclose relationships that a reasonable elector would want to know about, and we decline funding that carries conditions on what we may say.
We assess Canadian office-holders and candidates on their records and their conduct toward Palestinian rights, and we say publicly what we find — credit where it is earned, criticism where it is deserved. We do not align. We do not endorse, oppose or affiliate with any Canadian political party or candidate; we do not tell electors how to vote, and we contribute to no campaign. In pre-election and election periods, we follow the third-party rules of the Canada Elections Act and its provincial equivalents, and we register when those rules require it.
The Congress answers to the people it represents and to the people who fund it. Donated funds are spent on the work of the Congress and accounted for; where a donor asks that a gift be used for a particular purpose, we either honour that purpose or decline the gift. Any decision a reasonable elector would read as departing from the Founding Principles goes to the National Council. It is not taken quietly.
Our credibility is the asset our advocacy runs on. We source what we publish, we distinguish what is documented from what is alleged, and when we get something wrong, we correct it publicly and promptly rather than letting it stand.
We work with people of every background, faith and political outlook, within our community and beyond it. Our minutes record dissent as well as decisions, and once a decision is made, we hold to it.
We train and hand over. We bring community members into the work rather than speaking on their behalf; we credit the people who do the work, and we measure ourselves partly by how many Palestinian Canadians can advocate effectively without us.