Pakistan-India flag raisings debate.
Mississauga’s practice of raising foreign flags at Celebration Square is causing controversy and debate both online and, now, in person at City Hall.
On October 8, resident Onkar Deshpande appeared before City Council to say he was upset that the city raising the Indian flag “got around 1000 hate comments” on social media.
Deshpande asked for the city to “mute those posts.” In response, city staff member Rob Trewartha told council that the city saw a “significant uptake in hateful comments following both the Pakistan and Indian flag raising[s] this year,” but not other flag raisings.
Trewartha also said that while the City does mute and block hate speech, the city does not turn off commenting on social media and will not block people from expressing their opinions.
On X, the City of Mississauga’s official account made a post on August 15 saying “Today, we are raising the national Flag of India at #Mississauga Celebration Square in recognition of India’s 79th Independence Day.”
That post now has one million views and 1700 comments. A review of those comments shows that while there are indeed hateful comments towards people of Indian descent, there are also many negative comments about the idea of raising foreign flags in general.
For example, one person wrote “I believe a foreign flag should only be flown when a head of state visits Canada and it is done as a courtesy,” and another said, “the only flag that should be raised is the Canadian flag. Even to me, a person of Indian descent, this looks silly.”
The City’s official X account responded with the following statement, “We’ve received some misinformed and even hateful comments on this post. It’s important to clarify misinformation. To clarify: The City raises more than 25 flags and lights the clock tower over 175 times annually to recognize a wide range of nations, communities and causes.”
According to the City, the Community Recognition Program allows Canadian registered charities and non-profit organizations to request a flag raising or clock tower lighting.
For a national flag raising, the flag must represent a nation whose flag is recognized by Global Affairs Canada and it must be approved by City council. The flag will then fly on the flag post at Celebration Square for 24 hours.
The request for the Indian flag raising appears to have come from the Kutumb Cultural Foundation. On its single page website, the “non-profit Indo-Canadian cultural entity” describes its purpose as to “enhance the visibility and appreciation of Indian cultures in Canada while connecting Indians, including non-residents, with their heritage.”
The City of Mississauga’s X post included a link to the Kutumb Foundation in India, which seems to be a different entity from the Kutumb Cultural Foundation.
Mississauga’s official X post about the Pakistan flag raising on August 14 has 29,000 views and 130 comments.
