Winnipeg Free Press

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WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A15 O TTAWA — A group of young skaters carried a gigantic Canadian flag down Ottawa’s Rideau Canal Friday morning to help kick off events marking the 60th anni- versary of Canada’s celebrated banner. The National Flag of Canada Day event in- cluded speeches and the singing of the national anthem and was attended by dozens of skaters, top athletes and a woman who helped to assem- ble the first-ever modern Maple Leaf flag. Young skaters from local sport clubs carried the flag down a portion of the Rideau Canal Skateway between the Laurier and Mackenzie King bridges. The national flag marking its 60th birthday Saturday was adopted in 1965 under the govern- ment of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Joan O’Malley, the seamstress who stitched the first national flag, said the job of assem- bling prototype flags fell in her lap when she received a call from her dad Ken Donovan, who worked as a purchasing agent for the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission. Pearson wanted examples of the new flag to fly at the prime minister’s residence at Har- rington Lake and Donovan was asked to get them made quickly. “My dad said, ‘I’ll phone my daughter Joan, because she’s got a sewing machine,’” O’Malley said. Her dad ordered 30 yards of bunting from a store in Hull, the designs were silkscreened onto the material that night and O’Malley stayed up until midnight sewing flags. On Feb. 15, 1965, the day of the official flag raising ceremony, O’Malley said she wasn’t in attendance, because she had been asked by a member of the flag committee to keep her in- volvement a secret. Instead, she phoned in sick and took the day off to watch the event on TV. “As they were raising the flag, I thought, wow, I was at the birth of this flag,” O’Malley said, adding that she thinks of the work she and her dad did every time she sees a flag. “I was so proud.” Earlier this week, all living former prime ministers called on Canadians to express their national pride and “show the flag” as U.S. Presi- dent Donald Trump continues to make threats against this country’s economic security and sovereignty. A group of Canadian senators shared views on the country’s flag in a report released this week, with some calling it a symbol of pride and togetherness and others saying it represents Canada’s growth. Canadian Olympians Sophia Jensen and Tosh- ka Besharah carried the flag with the group of young skaters. Jensen, a sprint canoeist, said it was nice to be out Friday doing “the most Canadian thing possible.” “I’m honoured to be able to represent Can- ada,” Jensen said. Besharah, a Team Canada kayaker, said be- ing able to wear the Maple Leaf on the water and seeing the flag rise while on the podium is “such a special feeling.” “I think it’s awesome to be able to carry our flag and it’s something that we should be so proud of,” Besharah said. — The Canadian Press FREDERICTON — Graydon Miles was driv- ing down Highway 7 in Ontario last year when he saw an upside down Maple Leaf flying from a pickup truck, along with one flag directing an obscenity at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and another supporting Donald Trump’s 2024 presi- dential bid. For Miles, a high school teacher who lives in Ottawa, the truck brought back memories of the “Freedom Convoy” that took over the city in 2022. The noisy protest attracted thousands of demonstrators to Parliament Hill fighting against public-health restrictions, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the federal government, and Canadian flags were omnipresent among the protesters. “I’ve always been a proud Canadian and felt that our flag represented a way for others around the world to tie us — as peacekeepers, Olympians and backpackers — to the values we were most known for,” Miles said in an inter- view Wednesday. “For me, these traits included civility and humility, kindness and compassion and being distinctly non-American.” The convoy left him angry that the flag “sud- denly seemed to represent, both at home and on the world stage, the exact opposite of what I al- ways thought it meant.” Miles was not alone in cringing slightly at the sight of the Maple Leaf and wondering about the motives of someone putting it on display. But in the wake of anti-Canadian rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said Canada should become the 51st American state, a renewed sense of patriotism is sweeping the country, including a reclaiming of the flag. A Leger poll published this week found Trump’s threats are driving a swell of national pride, with 85 per cent of Canadians saying they feel proud to be Canadian. Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia, said people are again seeing the flag as a symbol of toler- ance and inclusion, and of Canadian distinctive- ness from the United States. During the “Free- dom Convoy” protests, it “came to symbolize a new form of identity,” he said, but now Can- adians of all political stripes are being urged to wave it proudly. “The flag flies for all,” he said. In a joint statement this week, former prime ministers Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper urged Canadians to fly the flag with pride as “never before” this Saturday on Flag Day. “Let’s show the world that we are proud of our history and proud of our country,” the statement said. The Maple Leaf, designed by George F. G. Stanley, will celebrate its 60th anniversary Saturday. Carmen Celestini, a religious studies lecturer at the University of Waterloo who has researched the “Freedom Convoy,” said the flag has undergone an interesting trajectory over the past five years. After Tk’emlups te Secwepemc released its findings of what are believed to be 215 un- marked burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia in 2021, the country took notice. One of the responses to the discovery was Trudeau ordering that flags on federal government buildings be flown at half-mast — an edict that lasted 162 days. People talked about the need to acknowledge the horrible things that were done and needed time to heal, Celestini said. Then came the Free- dom Convoy where protesters flew the flag up- side down — a signal of an emergency — and presented themselves as patriots, she added. “People sort of walked away from the Can- adian flag because they didn’t want to be associ- ated with that,” she said. “Now that Donald Trump has pushed (the threat of annexation and tariffs), I think, we have said, ‘No, this is our flag, this is our coun- try. We are proud.’ It’s a new rallying call for us as more symbolic of who we are, and a pride in the flag that has not necessarily been very vocal before, but it is absolutely now.” Bradley Miller, associate professor of hist- ory at the University of British Columbia, said the design of the flag, with no military or re- ligious symbols, makes it adaptable. “It repre- sents whatever we want it to represent,” he said. “Having a symbol, a flag, that is as much a blank slate as ours is an advantage to a country that needs to be able to accommodate.” In the current climate, he said it is a symbol of defiance. “As often happens in history, an exter- nal threat can resolve our internal doubts,” Mil- ler said. “I think that’s happened here, at least right now.” After seeing the upside-down flag last year, Miles wrote a poem titled “Give Me,” reflecting on the flag’s significance and the darker turn it had taken. “It meant we were civil, tolerant and nice. It was worn by our heroes in war zones, on ice,” reads part of the three-verse poem. “Just give me my flag back — and please watch your mouth. You’re starting to sound like some folks from the south.” As the Trump administration continues to portray its northern neighbour as an adversary, Miles is heartened by a growing sense of unity across political and social spectrums in Canada. “And, in some bubbles, that seems to include taking back the flag,” he said. — The Canadian Press NEWS I CANADA SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2025 Senators share views on enduring emblem of identity CATHERINE MORRISON OTTAWA — A group of Canadian senators is sharing views on the country’s flag, with some calling it a symbol of pride and togetherness, and others saying it represents Canada’s growth. The report released this week is the result of an “inquiry” on the meaning of the Canadian flag launched by Sen. An- drew Cardozo a year ago. Canada is marking the 60th anniversary of the national flag, adopted in 1965 with its iconic red Maple Leaf under Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Cardozo says it’s import- ant that Canadians are proud of the flag. “I think the convoy folks appropriated the flag two years ago for their negative message about our system,” Cardozo said. “This year with the threat to our nationhood from the south, we need to take it back and stand proud with our single most recognizable emblem.” With Flag Day being celebrated today, all living former prime ministers are asking Canadians to express their na- tional pride and “show the flag” as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to make threats against this country’s eco- nomic security and sovereignty. The report says the senators recognized the flag’s “complex symbolism,” noting the challenges it represents for Indigen- ous peoples and its recent use in political protests. Senators shared their personal feelings about the flag, with two of them drawing connections to sports. Sen. Chantal Petitclerc, a wheelchair racer who has won gold medals at the Olympics, Paralympics and Common- wealth Games, says she remembers her heart bursting with “joy and pride” watching the Canadian flag rise from the po- dium after winning a gold medal. “There I was, staring at my flag, representing Canada, feel- ing the power of a whole country and feeling grateful for this flag and for what it represents — for this country, where I was able to go from a small town, a 13-year-old girl lying on the ground at our farm after my accident, then being included and supported all the way to that podium,” Petitclerc said. Sen. Tony Loffreda recounted seeing people in the streets waving Canadian flags and singing the anthem after a win at the 1972 Summit Series, where he says a feeling of pride “intoxicated” him. Former sen. Jane Cordy said that while Canadians don’t all have the same experiences or feelings toward the flag and what it represents, “our flag does create a linkage and a con- text that inspires conversation.” For Sen. Lucie Moncion, the flag is a visual representation of “a society that is reinventing and transforming itself with the passage of time.” The report says that while the flag unites many Canadians, there is also a need for continued reflection on national hist- ory and reconciliation. “The inquiry ultimately reaffirmed the flag as an endur- ing emblem of Canada’s identity, growth and aspirations,” it reads. — The Canadian Press Facing threats, many Canadians see renewed sense of pride in flag HINA ALAM CATHERINE MORRISON Canada celebrates flying the flag Ottawa skaters kick off Maple Leaf’s 60th anniversary ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS Local youth skate with a large Canadian flag on the Rideau Canal to launch celebrations marking National Flag of Canada Day in Ottawa Friday. ;