Toronto city council votes to ban flying flags of foreign countries at City Hall, civic centres

A close-up view with an ultra wide angle lens.

Flags of foreign nations will not be raised on flagpoles at Toronto City Hall and civic centres starting in December.

City council approved a motion to make changes to Toronto’s flag-raising policy during Thursday’s meeting.

The original motion, dubbed One Country, One Flag; Celebrating the Canadian Flag, put forward by Coun. Jon Burnside called for the immediate elimination of the policy allowing flags of other foreign countries and non-profit or charitable organizations to be flown on courtesy flagpoles at city buildings.

“A flag is supposed to be a symbol of what brings us together, not a focal point of what divides us. And unfortunately, it’s been a focal point of what divides us,” Burnside said.

“I’ve watched riot squads of police officers go up and down Bay Street in preparation for a particular flag raising, and that has to stop.”

Coun. Michael Thompson amended Burnside’s motion to only ban flags of foreign nations, effective Dec. 1.

City council also approved Coun. James Pasternak’s additional amendment that only flag raisings that are already booked are to be honoured.

Coun. Lily Cheng, who was one of the seven councillors who voted against the motion, said that while she understands why her fellow councillors want to make the change, “I do feel we are taking away one of the colours of how we make the city beautiful in terms of the diversity and the tapestries that we weave together.”

“I really struggle with this decision because we live in the most diverse city in the world, and they’re going to look at all the cities around us that raise flags. And 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, and so raising that flag has a meaning for them.”

Cheng’s motion to raise the Lion and Sun flag in solidarity with Iranian-Canadians was ruled out of order during Thursday’s meeting as city rules stipulate that only flags recognized by the federal government be flown.

Coun. Nick Mantas also did not support the motion, echoing Cheng’s sentiments.

“We’re basically penalizing 160 countries that we recognize in our city for a few groups, so I’m against the way that we’re going about this,” he said.

Mantas and Coun. Jamaal Myers both called for a proper consultation with community members about the city’s flag-raising policy.

“I’ve been to many flag raisings at City Hall and the Scarborough Civic Centre and these are all sources of pride and the uniqueness and beauty of our city,” Myers said.

“We’re going to be the outlier. Every other city in the GTA raises multiple flags to honour ethnic communities, to honour celebrations. And we’re going to say, no, we don’t want that. And I wonder why, particularly when we’re the most diverse city in the world.”

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 will continue to be raised.

With files from Phil Tsekouras and Janice Golding