An official Palestinian flag-raising ceremony planned at Regina city hall for Friday is not going ahead, according to the city.
A Thursday afternoon email from the City of Regina said, “At the direction of Mayor Sandra Masters, the flag raising and ceremony for Palestine that had been planned for tomorrow, Friday November 15, will not proceed.”
The post gave no explanation as to why. The mayor’s office was not able to immediately respond to questions from CBC News seeking an explanation for the decision.
Masters ran for re-election as the city’s mayor but was defeated in Wednesday’s civic election. She remains in office until Nov. 18, when mayor-elect Chad Bachynski will be sworn in.
Raheela Agha, an organizer of the event planned for Friday, expressed “deep disappointment” in Masters’s decision in a post on Facebook. Agha said she had ensured that police would be present at the event, and that the ceremony would not involve slogans, posters, chanting or speakers.
“It’s essential to clarify that our request was made to honour Palestine and its people, symbolized by the Palestinian national flag, not any organization or group,” she wrote.
Agha added that she trusted the city would honour its promise to raise a flag in commemoration of Nov. 15, the date on which the Palestine Liberation Organization declared independence in 1988.
Canada currently recognizes the Palestinian territories as entities separate from Israel, but not as a state unto themselves.
Swift reaction
The advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East posted on X, saying the decision to cancel the event is “disturbing” and accusing the city of giving in to complaints from pro-Israeli lobbies.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, meanwhile, applauded the decision, which it said demonstrates “strong leadership” and “moral clarity” from Masters.
“We appreciate the swift response and strong working relationships with the administration of the City of Regina and Mayor Masters,” said Gustavo Zentner, the centre’s vice-president for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, in a post on X.
What the rules say
The City of Regina’s flag protocol and procedure for raising another country or organization’s flag consists of an online form that asks the group’s name and reason for the flag-raising.
Requests must be reviewed by the office of the city clerk and meet the criteria set out in its guidelines. The office of the city clerk won’t approve flags from organizations considered “controversial, contentious or divisive,” but the policy does state that “commemorative celebrations” of the independence or national days of other countries “will be approved” unless a similar request has been made within the same year.
Agha said in her social media post that Masters’s decision “stands in stark contrast to earlier this year” when the city allowed an Israeli flag-raising ceremony.
Regina city council heard from several delegations this summer after Israel’s flag was flown at city hall April 13-14, 2024, to mark its national day of independence. They were looking for the city to revamp its policy.
In July, city council considered further restrictions to flag-raisings. Ultimately, the decision was referred back to the city clerk for recommendations on how to proceed.
Those recommendations came back on Sept. 25, 2024, with the clerk advising the city should stop raising flags of other nations in celebration of independence days. The only exception would be as a sign of respect to a visiting nation.
However with a packed, 1,000-page agenda, the recommendation never made it up for debate.
The city’s move comes amid ongoing violence and tension in the Middle East, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on southern Israel and the subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel.
The Oct. 7 attack killed an estimated 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Hamas abducted more than 250 people as hostages. An estimated 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
The Israeli campaign that followed has killed more than 43,500 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and destroyed much of the enclave’s infrastructure, forcing most of the 2.3 million population to move several times.
