Everyone knows North Vancouver is a beautiful place to spend one’s life. But for many, it’s a less accommodating place to spend time without end.
The City of North Vancouver is looking to make its cemetery more culturally inclusive with separate sections held for people of different religious and cultural burial traditions.
The move comes at the request of members of the North Vancouver Jewish community, although the strategy now being worked on by city staff is set to include the rituals and practices of many other faiths.
“I feel that allowing faith-based sections in the cemetery would allow us to continue what we're already doing, which is living together in peace and harmony. And I feel that we should be allowed to rest in eternity in peace and harmony in a public cemetery,” city resident Kala Solway told council on June 20. “I also feel that allowing the faith-based section in the cemeteries allows the various ethnicities to honour our own traditions and rituals, and yet still be a part of a larger community that we already form.”
In order to comply with custom, Jews must be buried in Jewish cemeteries (or within Jewish sections of cemeteries), said Rabbi Philip Gibbs of Har El, the North Shore Centre for Jewish Life. The places where they are buried are considered holy and must remain undisturbed forever. That fosters a sense of communal ownership and it allows the Jewish community to care for the graves in culturally appropriate ways.
“There are certain traditional requirements around what respect of graves looks like in Judaism,” Gibbs said, citing the practice of leaving stones at the grave of a loved one instead of flowers as an example. “That's able to bring many people a sense of comfort when visiting their loved ones.”
It’s also customary for Jews to visit the cemetery and recite specific prayers for the dead at certain times of year, which is difficult to do if they are spread around the graveyard, he added.
There has been an active and organized Jewish community on the North Shore since the 1950s, said city resident Neil Loomer, but there is no place in North Vancouver for them to be buried.
West Vancouver’s Capilano View Cemetery has a Jewish section, although non-West Vancouver residents must pay almost double the cost to be buried there that West Van residents do. The nearest other options are in Burnaby and New Westminster.
"I believe that creating special internment sections for the Jewish community and other faith groups who choose North Vancouver as a place to raise their families will enhance the North Shore's cultural diversity and contribute to the growth and prosperity of our city," Loomer said.
Having a separate section could take as little demarcation as a walkway or a low hedge, Bernard Pinsky, a member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, advised council.
Council voted unanimously on a motion from Mayor Linda Buchanan asking city staff to report back on the feasibility for faith-based communities to have dedicated sections within the cemetery tailored to their religious and cultural practices.
When the city cemetery was established in 1907, diversity and inclusion were likely far from the minds of the city fathers, Buchanan said.
“Today, our values are very, very different, and I think our public places need to reflect that,” she said. “We know that the city is an incredibly diverse place, and it is important that we honour and celebrate that diversity with inclusive policies.”
Support for Buchanan’s motion was unanimous.
“I think we need to find ways to accommodate and to support to the best of our ability, all of the faith-based rituals surrounding the death of a loved one. It's such a sacred and meaningful time in a family's life,” said Coun. Angela Girard. “If we consider ourselves an inclusive city, I think by supporting this motion, we're demonstrating our commitment to supporting all residents within our city.”
