Toronto is taking a Canada First approach with the city’s flagpoles.
City council voted 19-7 on Thursday to no longer fly the flags of other countries at municipal properties. The decision came a few months after the Palestinian flag was raised outside Toronto City Hall – after a demonstrator was ordered to stop playing O Canada on a loudspeaker.
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Councillor Jon Burnside’s motion called for an end to the flying of flags of foreign nations at city hall and Toronto’s civic centres. It also called for a rethink of the city’s policies on flag-raisings and on the lighting of the large “Toronto” sign at Nathan Phillips Square.
The motion also initially called for a prohibition on flags of non-profit or charitable organizations, with an explicit exception for “the flags of indigenous and treaty partners, the Intersex Pride flag, the Black Liberation flag, the flags of professional sport organizations, and the flags of cities that are part of the city’s international alliance program.” Those elements were removed via an amendment before the vote.
That Burnside’s proposal would lead to conflict was obvious. Councillor Lily Cheng had brought forward her own motion, meant as a show of solidarity, to allow a raising of the flag that had been flown by Iran before its monarchy was overthrown in 1979.
Council Speaker Frances Nunziata ruled Cheng’s motion out of order earlier in the day. Nunziata said the motion would override the authority of both city hall’s protocol office and the federal government, which does not recognize the flag.
Dozens seated in the gallery of the council chambers stormed out after, amid shouts of “Shame!”
‘Most diverse city’
Cheng voted against Burnside’s proposal , as did councillors Mike Colle, Ausma Malik, Nick Mantas, Jamaal Myers, James Pasternak and Neethan Shan.
Cheng struggled to support Burnside’s motion because “we live in the most diverse city in the world.”
“When I go to flag-raisings, I see what it means to people, because some of those people can’t even go back to the countries that they came from,” Cheng said.
She added – without elaboration – that it would be easier in terms of security and policing to prohibit the raising of foreign flags on city property.
Mantas said he agreed with Cheng and said city hall was “penalizing 160 countries” because of the actions of “a few groups.” He also did not elaborate.
Myers said some Torontonians would take the decision personally, alluding to Cheng’s doomed motion. He said Toronto would be an “outlier” in the GTA.
The new policy comes into effect in December.