Calgary student association hung up on 'exclusionary' Canadian flag
Last Updated: Monday, March 30, 2009 | 7:06
A Mount Royal College student says it's ludicrous that his student association wants to ask for opinions before deciding whether it should re-hang a Canadian flag in its building.
"I don't see why this discussion even exists. It's just ludicrous," said Dylan Clarkson, a journalism student at the institution and a reservist with the Canadian Forces.
"When I've gone around talking to students, particularly other reservists, students that I know, they all want the flag back up there. So I'm wondering where this dissenting voice is coming from that they feel is so powerful they can't put the flag back up."
A Canadian flag used to hang from the ceiling of Wyckham House, the student services building owned and operated by the Students' Association of Mount Royal College. The flag was taken down during extensive renovations to the building last year and has not been returned to the same location.
"We want to be as fully representative of all of our students as possible, so what we want to do is go out there and make sure that this is something the students want to see," Elizabeth McKeown, the student association's vice-president of student life, told CBC News on Monday.
The association is preparing a questionnaire to ask students about the flag after it received a submission raising the possibility that Canada's red-and-white standard could be "exclusionary."
"People may not realize that overt displays of patriotism can also be seen as exclusionary and even sometimes work to undermine democratic ideals," the unsigned letter reads.
The correspondence quotes a 2001 article from MIT Tech Talk, the Boston-area university's official newspaper, that outlined how a student from Burma felt "excluded and intimidated" about the proliferation of American flags shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States.
McKeown said she received the one-page letter from a student, who wants to remain anonymous, in January. The issue was raised briefly during a council meeting the next month, which led to the decision to survey students.
McKeown said she hopes the questionnaires will be sent out soon so the student association can resolve the issue by mid-May.
The newly renovated Wyckham House will also host concerts and conferences, so the association wants to ensure the Canadian flag fits in with those uses as well, said Matt Koczkur, the organization's vice-president of external affairs.
"We're wanting to turn this into a multifunctional space, so there are a lot of competing interests, and obviously, if we are, as well, going to be hanging silk-screens down from the roof there, it would be inappropriate to be covering up the Canadian flag."
He said it's possible the student association will decide to move the Canadian flag outside.
But Clarkson, who ran unsuccessfully to be the association's president last year, said he thinks the whole debate is a waste of time. "As far as I can tell, they're worried about it either offending people or being overly nationalistic."
Said fellow student Annie Miao: "I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be [hung in the student centre]. I mean, we are on Canadian soil, yeah, so I don't think there even needs to be a survey."
