When is the flying of the Canadian flag the same thing as posting a “For Sale” sign?
When it’s hanging from the balcony of a condo, of course. Remember the fiasco last year when an Edmonton couple was fined $250 by their condo board for not removing a Canadian flag windsock from their balcony? And when William Nienhuis, a veteran and condo resident, wrote “No Freedom” across copies of the fine notice and posted them, he was fined another $250 for littering.
There may be more to this story that has been made public but it certainly makes one wonder about condo boards, the abuse of power and our pride for our country.
Here’s hoping that Canadians from coast to coast to coast once again dig out those patriotic hats and T-shirts and find their packed-away flags, and that William Nienhuis already has his flag ready to fly.
And this time let’s hope some misguided condo board doesn’t get all in a snit. Sunday is Canada Day. We Canadians don’t spend enough time sticking out our chests and proclaiming our pride of our country and our flag. This is the one day of the year when patriotism should be top-of-mind for every Canadian. And nobody, condo board members included, should do anything but applaud anyone who is proud enough to fly the flag. This isn’t a For Sale sign hanging from the balcony – it’s the Canadian flag for crying out loud.
Westerners may like to say they don’t like Toronto, but they have to stand and applaud Toronto MP John Carmichael who last Friday hosted a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the passage of Bill C-288, his private member’s bill aimed at preserving the right of all Canadians to fly the flag.
The National Flag of Canada Act is to receive royal assent this week. It’s sad that we even needed such an act. But it turns out there were enough instances of people being banned from hanging flags from their balconies that we did.
“I found that Canadians in fact don’t have the right to fly the flag, they assume it twice a year: Canada Day and Flag Day on Feb. 15,” said Carmichael.
And here most Canadians had assumed that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which supposedly protects our freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, included the right to express our patriotism by flying our national flag.
Silly us.
And our federal government, which we assumed – again incorrectly, apparently – was there to protect the rights of Canadians, couldn’t even bring in a bill that actually gives us the right to fly the flag year round.
No, this bill, as nice as it sounds – National Flag of Canada Act – doesn’t give us any right to fly the flag, on Canada Day or any other day. It merely encourages Canadians to do so. The bill originally called for penalties against those who prevented others from flying the flag. But its watered-down version reads, “every person who is in control of an apartment building … is encouraged to allow the National Flag of Canada to be displayed in accordance with flag protocol.”
Which means if you live in an apartment or condo building you still have no absolute right to fly the flag on Canada Day. Not to encourage anyone to break the rules, but how about everyone get together with their neighbours and ensure that every balcony has a flag flying Sunday.
