The school flag issue seemed to disappear quickly as it came, but the lessons we’ve learned from it are going to linger.
To recap, on Monday, March 24, news hit that the South Shore Regional Centre for Education (SSRCE) had issued a directive: public schools could only fly the Canadian and Nova Scotian flags outdoors. All others (including Mi’kmaq, Acadian, African Nova Scotian, and Queer Pride flags) would be immediately taken down.
But this announcement found us primed for a fight. We’ve been watching our communities fighting for their lives in the current American horror story, and this certainly had the whiff of something foul drifting over the border.
The public response was so overwhelming it prompted an immediate heel turn and an apology from the regional executive director. We were told this was all a mixup, an attempt at compliance with flag code, a temporary measure until proper maintenance plans were in place. And as a member of the SSRCE’s parent advisory committee, having seen genuine allyship from the executive director in the past, I’m actually inclined to believe it.
But even so, that doesn’t change how wrong-headed this all was, and how important it was to push back. Hate and discrimination has been emboldened in Canada. We cannot afford to give the benefit of the doubt, to trust in good intentions, to believe these measures are temporary. Just look at the comments section of every article and Facebook post to see who was cheering for it. How many of these were ‘champions of the flag code’, and how many were just glad to see us fade from view?
While the ministry of education has also affirmed schools’ right to fly flags, I’m admittedly cynical about their honeyed statements, dripping with shock and reprobation. In the province’s own annual student success surveys, 2SLGBTQIA+ students have reported harassment and a poisoned educational environment, year over year, worse in most metrics than any other student demographic. So while I’m glad the province has given some thought to what’s happening outside our schools, I am still waiting to hear how they plan to address this crisis on the inside.
Ultimately, this was a dual lesson in both the banality of injustice and the efficacy of protest. The SSRCE may not have anticipated the message they were sending, but we read the semaphore for what it was, and we stopped the signal. So stay vigilant: I’m willing to bet this won’t be the last message we’ll need to intercept.
