Following a high-profile motion back in May to remove the United States flag from Queen’s Park Arena, it looks like nothing’s changed.
New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine was behind the motion and tells 1130 NewsRadio he was at a New Westminster Salmonbellies game recently and saw it still hanging.
“Much to my surprise, the American flag was up there, and as they sang the Canadian national anthem to open up the game, a couple thousand people who attended the game had to look up to the north end of the arena, and there, from the rafters, was a very, very large American flag. So, it has not come down,” he said.
Fontaine doesn’t know why the flag remains flying, despite the motion’s approval.
“I’m going to be inquiring with senior management as to what has transpired. My assumption was that this was a two-part process. First to remove the American flag, and secondly to replace it with the City of New Westminster flag,” he said.
“I’m actually quite perplexed as to why it’s taken this long to simply remove the flag. I understand it might take a little bit of time to get the right sizing for a new city flag, but that doesn’t prevent us from taking part in step one.”
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Fontaine understands the potential excuse of waiting for the city’s flag may not sit well with everyone.
“My perspective on it is that I think the flag should have been taken down shortly after the motion had been passed. I don’t know why it’s taking so long, but I will definitely be inquiring about that, and I’m hoping that it can happen before the end of the week.”
From the public’s point of view, Fontaine acknowledges that residents may lose trust in council.
“I think when people see that actions of council aren’t acted upon as quickly as they would expect, I would think they would be disappointed, and there will be an issue around whether they can trust when other motions come forward that they’ll be acted upon in a timely manner.”
In his original motion, Fontaine said he wasn’t against putting the U.S. flag back up, but only if a state-side team was visiting.
Back in March, the City of Cranbrook removed the U.S. flag from Western Financial Place Arena. That move was followed by the City of Mississauga, which took its U.S. flag down from its arenas and locations along Lake Ontario.
