Alberta Fact Check: Flags don’t cause division — people do
A recent article from Global News asserts that Canadian flags and Alberta flags are creating division in the lead-up to the province's October referendum.
A Global News article has portrayed the Alberta and Canadian flags as active agents of division in the run-up to Alberta’s October 19 referendum. It cites a music teacher who gets a “weird vibe” upon seeing her neighbours displaying an Alberta flag.
The article also mentions how a grocery worker’s union has filed a grievance over the presence of flags in stores, and how a float was kicked out of a small-town Alberta parade because it was festooned with flags. It also noted that some shouting demonstrators at an Alberta event where the prime minister was in attendance had waved Alberta flags.
All the issues laid out in the article were caused by people. Flags are inert, innocent bystanders in this.
The flag of Alberta has been flown in front of countless homes for decades, as has the Canadian flag. They can be powerful symbols and have always been a visible part of national identities. They are tangible demonstrations of allegiance or regional pride, and choosing to display one may indicate what side of an issue a person may or may not be on. Only the person who raises the flag can really tell us what their intention in doing so is.
Most people flying flags are not doing so to intimidate their neighbours or weird out music teachers. They are not demonstrating a partisan stance or trying to divide the neighbourhood. They choose to fly the flag as a positive expression of something that they want to share.
Many homes are adorned with both the Canadian and Albertan flags. The mental conflict such displays must invoke within people such as the aforementioned music teacher must be agonizing as they try to process the mixed symbolism.
Division only comes when people try to turn the display of neighbours’ flags into something more sinister and then have their “weird vibes” amplified by lazy news outlets. Only when people insist on reading them as loyalty tests do they become weapons.
Flags are pieces of cloth. They do not hold opinions, organize petitions, or shout at politicians. People do those things.
Cory Morgan
Cory Morgan is an Alberta-based columnist, political commentator, and longtime advocate for Western Canadian independence. He is the author of the recently updated book The Sovereigntist’s Handbook, a grassroots guide for independence supporters and political activists.
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