Earlier this month, on Israel Independence Day, Meir Gerichter and his wife decided to go shopping at the Promenade Mall in Vaughan, Ont. To show his solidarity for the Jewish state, he brought with him the flag of Israel.

Little did Gerichter know this would cause a major commotion. Soon after entering the mall, a gaggle of security guards descended upon him. They demanded he either ditch the flag or leave the mall under threat of being trespassed.

So it was that Meir exited the mall. But that wasn’t good enough for the security guards. They wanted him to vacate the mall parking lot as well. Meir says he found this to be odd given that he wasn’t staging a demonstration or soliciting mall patrons. But nevertheless, the security guards were seemingly obsessed with that flag of Israel. And they objected that Gerichter was filming the encounter on his cellphone.

The security guards threatened to call the police — and they made good on that threat. A York Regional Police Service officer soon showed up and engaged with Gerichter. They had a back-and-forth conversation regarding what is and what isn’t trespassing. Eventually, Gerichter had had enough of the harassment and decided to go shopping elsewhere.

But in hindsight, the question arises: what did Gerichter do wrong?

Rebel News reached out to the customer service department of Promenade Mall and a representative told us that flags are permitted in the mall as long as they are folded up and not put on display. We noted that when we skimmed through the mall’s customer code of conduct, we could find nothing about a flag ban. And when we asked if this included the display of Canadian flags, she said she wasn’t sure and transferred our call to the security department. A security guard told us he wasn’t sure either, and suggested we call the mall’s general manager, Darren Woodworth.

We placed a call to the GM and a fascinating conversation ensued. Namely, we simply wanted to know if there was a flag ban in place and if so, why wasn’t this ban noted on the mall’s code of conduct website? Inexplicably, Woodworth refused to answer the question, saying that this was a matter for the mall’s legal department to deal with. He told us to send an email with our questions and we complied.

For the record, here are the queries we submitted to the legal team at Promenade Mall:

1. Does the Promenade Mall have a flag policy?

2. If so, what are the details of that policy?

3. If there is a ban on flags being displayed by customers in the mall or on the mall’s parking lot, would that ban include the display of the Canadian flag?

4. I reviewed the Promenade’s customer code of conduct on your website, but I did not see anything regarding the display of flags. Is the flag prohibition a new rule?

5. If all flags are indeed banned, what is the ostensible policy reason for this ban?

6. I called the mall’s customer service line yesterday and was told by a representative that flags are allowed in the mall but they must be rolled up and not displayed. Is this indeed the case?

7. Is there a double standard at play regarding the flag ban? Meir has sent me a photograph of a Palestinian flag being displayed on the parking lot of the mall. Is there a reason why this display was allowed?

Alas, it has been radio silence thus far. But why?

In any event, it would seem that the Promenade Mall does take exception to the mere presence of flags — well, at least some flags. Yet getting answers to why this policy exists — if indeed such a policy exists – has proven to be futile. And we wonder: if a shopper was displaying the Canadian flag, would that person also be frog-marched out of the mall under threat of arrest?

As well, with “pride season” just around the corner, we ponder if the Promenade Mall’s flag ban applies to the sacred rainbow flag? For if that’s the case, mall management had better fasten their seatbelts…

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