REGINA - The official raising of the Palestine flag did not happen Friday morning at City Hall, but that did not stop pro-Palestine supporters from showing up anyway.
Instead of a flag-raising, it was a protest that ensued outside City Hall in Regina. Demonstrators were on hand waving placards and several of their own Palestine flags.
The group of over 100 people also chanted slogans including 鈥渆nd the siege on Gaza now鈥� as well as the controversial chant 鈥渇rom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.鈥�
The protest erupted after the flag raising was ordered not to proceed by Mayor Sandra Masters on Thursday afternoon. The cancellation happened after city officials had previously approved the application for the flag to go up.
Several of the demonstrators openly denounced Masters for the decision to cancel the flag raising, with chants such as 鈥淪andra Masters you can鈥檛 hide, we charge you with genocide.鈥�
Regina would have been the first city in Canada to hold such a flag raising, which would have coincided with the day recognizing Palestine鈥檚 Declaration of Independence. But the city had come under criticism in the last several days from opponents who said the flag-raising supported terrorism.
While there was a police presence on hand at the protest that ensued Friday morning, the event stayed peaceful for the most part. The one notable exception involved a YouTube personality who loudly expressed her disgust towards the pro-Palestine supporters and the sentiments being expressed. However, police stepped in to calm that situation down.
Valerie Zink, a member of Palestine Solidarity Regina, said her organization had supported the application from proponents to raise the Palestine flag at City Hall. Zink pointed to the raising of the flag of Israel outside City Hall back in May, which she said caused concern from people in Regina due to Israel being on trial for genocide and for using starvation as a weapon of war.
鈥淧eople were invited by city staff at that time to submit an application to raise the flag of Palestine on Nov. 15 which is the anniversary of Palestine liberation. Members of the Palestinian community did that, they submitted the application, which was approved in accordance with the city鈥檚 flag protocol.鈥�
She said they had expected the flag raising to have gone ahead quietly and peacefully with little attention.
鈥淏ut it鈥檚 obviously gone in a different direction now because of Sandra Masters鈥� decision to shut it down. And she hasn鈥檛 provided any justification for that. I think it鈥檚 backfired in the sense that it brought a lot of attention to the issue. We had a very strong turnout today for our community mobilization instead. Certainly people don鈥檛 need the authorization of the Mayor to expressive their solidarity with Palestine.鈥�
One of those on hand at the demonstration, Fatima Khairy, said she was there to lend her support because of the videos she had seen of what went on in Gaza.
鈥淚 spend every day, about an hour, watching the videos coming out of Gaza. After I see that, I can鈥檛 stay silent, I can鈥檛 pretend, 鈥榦h there鈥檚 nothing going on,鈥欌�� she said.
As for the decision to cancel the flag raising, she called it 鈥渦nfair and a coward action.鈥�
鈥淭his is one of the Canadian values you know - speak up, freedom. But they tried to make it difficult for people. But you can see, we are the ones who can speak for freedom, there鈥檚 nothing can stop us.鈥�
