A debate on the future of raising of national flags at Calgary city hall is not going ahead Tuesday, after city council defeated an attempt to add an urgent motion to the meeting agenda while questioning its urgency.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas announced last week on social media that he intended to introduce an urgent motion at Tuesday’s meeting that aims to amend the city’s flag policy so that “national flags will no longer be raised at city hall.”
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean introduced the motion, and argued the raising of other countries flags in municipal plaza has “increasingly become a source of division in our community.”
“Recently, this practice has been used in ways that have inflamed tensions including instances where it has been associated with antisemitic messaging and behaviour,” McLean told council.
“As a municipal government, we have an obligation to ensure that the spaces and ceremonies we oversee reflect neutrality, unity, and respect for all residents.”
However, city council rejected adding the urgent motion to Tuesday’s council agenda in an 8-7 vote; adding an urgent motion to a council agenda requires 10 votes.
Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness questioned the urgency of the motion, as notices of motions are typically introduced at the city’s executive committee for a technical review before going to city council as a whole for a full debate.
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“Let’s not kid ourselves, this is purely because of the Palestinian flag raising,” Wyness said in her debate against adding the motion to Tuesday’s agenda.
“The shortcutting of our process to executive (committee) removes the ability to be able to communicate with Calgarians about a policy that matters to everyone.”
Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt told council he’d prefer to have an opportunity to consult with constituents ahead of a debate on changing the city’s flag policy.
“That would allow us to inform the notice of motion through the collaboration and the input from all of the communities who will be affected by this,” he said.
Under the City of Calgary’s flag policy, residents can request the raising of national flags of countries recognized by the federal government on that country’s national day.
On Saturday, the Palestinian was raised at city hall for the first time after the federal government announced Canada would recognize Palestinian statehood back in September.
Although Farkas said the timing of his proposal had nothing to do with a specific flag raising, he argued national flag-raising ceremonies could be perceived as city hall “taking sides in these international conflicts.”
“My colleagues made some good arguments about being able to engage more deeply with cultural communities about the topic,” he told reporters.
“I’ve heard from Calgarians who would like to see, as far as the flying of national flags, that city hall remain a fair, neutral and inclusive space.”
Both Farkas and McLean suggested they’re interested in bringing the notice of motion through the city’s executive committee to have a debate on the matter.
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot also expressed interest in the discussion around the city’s flag policy.
“More than happy to have the debate, but whether or not I’m going to support the motion is a whole other question,” Chabot told reporters. “I’m a live and let live kind of guy. It’s not for me to determine which nation is deemed to have received national recognition by the federal government.”
There are two more previously-approved national flag-raising ceremonies scheduled for this year, including Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Albania.
It’s one of the reasons Farkas argued the motion should be introduced as urgent business on Tuesday.
“If we were to accept this at a later meeting, we risk potentially having dozens of additional applications come in under the current rules,” he said. “Doing it that way would create an uneven playing field.”
According to the city, there have been 47 national flag-raising ceremonies scheduled outside city hall so far this year.
The next scheduled executive committee meeting, the earliest the notice of motion could come forward, is on Dec. 9.
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