Calgary’s new city council exercised its authority to determine whether an item was an urgent matter by denying a proposed flag-raising Notice of Motion.

Last week, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that an urgent Notice of Motion would come forward to the Nov. 18 Public Hearing Meeting of Council that would ban the raising of national flags on the Calgary city hall’s municipal plaza courtesy flagpole.

The motion was brought forward at the meeting by Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean.

“What was once intended as a unifying and symbolic gesture has increasingly become a source of division in our community,” he told councillors in his opening.

“Recently, this practice has been used in ways that have inflamed tensions, including instances where it has been associated with antisemitic messaging and behaviour.”

Mayor Farkas said that he wanted to create a level playing field for all countries by moving the motion now, as they only have two more national flag raisings left, and he didn’t want to risk having more flag-raising applications come in, only to be denied. On Nov. 25, the Bosnia and Herzegovina flag is to be raised, and on Nov. 29, the Albanian flag will be raised.

“That’s just not equitable, and it would really expose council to both political criticism and potential legal scrutiny about why some groups benefited from the timing and others did not,” he said.

“Offering clarity early in our term helps staff, it supports public safety, and it protects the neutrality of city hall as a civic space for everyone.”

The rules in Calgary’s procedure bylaw don’t provide specific criteria for a motion to be added to an agenda as urgent business, except that this practice has to be kept to a minimum.

“The Chair must provide a recommendation to Council or the Council Committee on whether the matter is urgent or not, prior to voting on the motion to add the matter as urgent business,” the bylaw reads.

Urgency doesn’t fly with fellow councillors

Ward 8 Coun. Nathan Schmidt said that this was coming forward without the ability to meet with interested stakeholders to hear their views on this.

“Even a postponement of the motion itself to be added to a Regular Meeting of Council, so that we can be better informed by all of those folks who live in all of our wards across the city and hear what they think about the potential implications of losing that opportunity,” he said.

“Not, again, focusing on one community, but all of the communities who have used this in the past to recognize the places that they’ve come to our city from, and to feel welcome in the place that they call home.”

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness opposed the urgency of the motion, mainly because while there may be potential applications, it’s not a sure thing they would apply. She said short cutting a change in policy so no Calgarians have the ability to discuss the issue wasn’t acceptable.

“Let’s not kid ourselves. This is purely because of the Palestinian flag raising,” she said.

“The mayor operated under this policy as a councillor. This last council operated under this, and it was only after a federal recognition did we end up with emails about our policy on flag raising.

“We have stood by the Ukrainian community when they raised their flag about the war that they are fighting against. It brought media attention to a conflict that Canadians need to be aware of.”

Coun. McLean said it forces the city to pick and choose between nations.

“You mentioned Ukraine. So, does that mean then, if Russia makes an application that they want to raise their flag, would we honour that? Probably not. If South Korea came, would you say then now North Korea gets a raise their flag. Or South Sudan. Iran, a dictatorship where they – we had just had a proclamation from Councillor Clark about the gay community – where they openly, you know, stone and kill, throw gays off buildings.”

Technically, because the Korean War ended in an armistice and not a treaty, Canada is still at war with North Korea. Under the flag policy, that flag can’t be raised. With Russia, other Canadian cities have chosen not to fly their flag due to their invasion of Ukraine.

While the flag-raising item didn’t make the Nov. 18 agenda, it could go through the regular route to council, through Executive Committee, where it would have to be approved on technical merit, before going to a council meeting for full debate.