Ottawa City Hall yanks down anti-abortion flag after councillors express anger
Torontosun.com
May 11, 2017
By Jon Willing
Ottawa City Hall pulled down a flag marking the annual anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill after councillors and members of the public expressed shock that the municipal government in Canada’s capital would allow it.
The March for Life received an official proclamation recognizing the day, as it does every year, but for the first time an anti-abortion flag was raised outside city hall.
Anyone who didn’t know the March for Life flag was flying along Laurier Avenue might have caught wind through social media just after 1 p.m., when a group of councillors posted a joint statement slamming the city for allowing it to happen.
“I could not be quiet,” Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney said in an interview in her city hall office. “Women have a constitutional right to safe health care that includes abortions.”
McKenney said she’s especially disturbed, considering the recent attention on reports of harassment outside an abortion clinic on Bank Street and the city’s focus on protecting people.
Hours earlier, Mayor Jim Watson said he asked the city’s clerk for a review of the proclamations and flag-raising policy. He also repeated his opinion on Twitter that “women have the right to choose.”
The joint statement was initially signed by seven councillors, although some others responded to an email from the Citizen or replied by phone saying they either support the statement or the policy review requested by the mayor.
Just before 3 p.m., the city’s protocol office lowered the flag.
The move irritated the man who won acceptance from the city to raise the flag in the first place.
Frank Barrett, 88, of Ottawa said he convinced the city to fly the March for Life flag after discussing the matter with the city’s protocol office.
At first, he was pitching to fly a different flag - one that the protocol department deemed didn’t match the official proclamation - so he searched for an old March for Life flag that would fit the bill.
The Citizen contacted him when the flag was lowered.
“Fine, I’ll call them, because it was supposed to be up until 8:22 p.m.,” said Barrett, an RCMP veteran. “That’s wrong. I was going to congratulate them for letting us do this.
“I hope there’s a lot in the paper about this.”
Barrett, who said he occasionally demonstrates across the street from the abortion clinic, was one of thousands of anti-abortion protesters who marched downtown from Parliament Hill.
March organizers were clearly thrilled by both the flag and the proclamation from city hall.
They opened the rally at 12:30 p.m. by mentioning the flag raising, then read out the full city proclamation in both English and French to the thousands who had gathered on the Hill.
Just after 3 p.m., city council members received an email from city clerk and solicitor Rick O’Connor apologizing for allowing the flag to be raised.
“While the city’s flag protocol procedures mirror the city’s proclamation policy in many ways, a review of this matter has determined that the request for the flag raising was made by an individual,” O’Connor wrote. “This does not meet the criteria and, when this was discovered, the flag was taken down under my authority.”
O’Connor said that proclamations are provided on request to groups where the request does not violate the Ontario Human Rights Code.
McKenney said she sees the national March for Life flag differently than a flag that would represent pro-choice views.
“Pro-choice signifies our support for the constitutionally protected right to health care,” McKenney said.
The city has grappled with other flag issues in the past, such as the question of when to fly another country’s flag after a tragic event.
Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley said he supports the mayor’s call for a review of the flag and proclamation policy, but he thinks the city should simply stop flying flags unless it’s for sports teams or visiting dignitaries.
