For second consecutive year, Central Huron Council will not fly Pride flag

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

For the second straight year, Central Huron Council has opted not to fly the Pride flag at any of its municipal properties after a request for inclusivity from Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH).

 

The request, which was discussed at Tuesday night’s meeting, was filed under correspondence for council. Councillor Jennifer Cox asked that it be extracted for discussion and she recommended that council approve the requests, which included declaring June to be Pride Month and flying a Pride flag at one of the municipality’s properties. 

 

Cox, who had supported the request when it was made last year as well, said that she felt the case that was made last year - that the municipality would be inundated with an untenable volume of flag-flying requests - had not come to pass and she felt the municipality should fly the Pride flag. She said that, as far as she knew, the municipality had not received any other flag-flying requests in that time and felt that flying the Pride flag would go a long way to showing people, specifically the very young people the municipality works so hard to attract, that the community is welcoming, open and inclusive.

 

She then wondered where the flag could go, stating that the municipality flies a lot of flags throughout its borders and surely one pole could be made available for a Pride flag.

 

Deputy-Mayor Marg Anderson then asked about Central Huron’s flag policy and Clerk Rachel Anstett told her that it declares that Central Huron fly the national, provincial and municipal flags, but that any changes could be made at the discretion of council. Anderson then asked which flag, if Central Huron was to fly the Pride flag, would come down for the month.

 

Staff jokingly said that decision was likely above their pay grade, but that the municipal flag likely made the most sense.
Councillor Dan Colquhoun returned to last year’s argument, asking where council would then “draw the line” in regards to flag requests, asking if council would consider flying Palestinian, Black Lives Matter or “Jewish” flags.

 

He rebuked Cox’s assessment of the situation, saying that people weren’t asking because council had made it very clear that it won’t do it. Central Huron flies the national, provincial and municipal flags, he said, and that’s it, so that’s why people haven’t asked. He insisted that, if council were to go ahead with flying the Pride flag, the municipality would be inundated with requests to fly other flags.

 

Councillor Michael Russo then said his answer would be a “solid no” on flying the flag.

 

Mayor Jim Ginn said that the municipality doesn’t make a habit of “declaring” specific months, weeks or days when requested, but that he would support the declaration of Pride Month. Flying the flag, however, he would not support. That’s when he asked about the possibility of splitting the motion and dealing with the declaration and flying of the flag separately. He also noted that Central Huron has lit its light tunnel next to town hall in rainbow colours in June before, which is “as much as anybody” has done to support Pride.

 

Russo then stated that he felt the municipality was already open and welcoming without having to fly flags and felt flying the Pride flag would serve as a “gateway” to other flags, similar to the point Colquhoun attempted to make.

 

Councillor Alison Lobb said she too was not supportive of flying the flag, calling it a “sexual orientation issue” that was none of her business. Russo agreed, saying it shouldn’t be council’s business either.

 

Anstett then called the recorded vote, requested by Ginn, and Cox, Anderson, Ginn and Councillor Everett Smith supported declaring June as Pride Month, while Colquhoun, Lobb and Russo voted against it. Councillor Adam Robinson was absent.
After seemingly splitting the issue into two votes, no one made a second motion asking the municipality to fly the Pride flag.

 

In response to the request for a municipal representative to attend the second-annual Huron County Pride celebration, Ginn, Anderson and Cox all stated they couldn’t attend. Council planned to ask Robinson if he could make the time to be there to represent the municipality.