Mississauga Bans National Flags at Celebration Square

0:00It's April 6th. Welcome in. This is Canada News Today, where local news meets AI. I'm Corey with the story. Mississauga just banned raising any national flags except Canada's at Celebration Square. Mayor Carolyn Parish pushed a motion through City Council last week saying these events have sparked too much controversy and division lately. They also eat up staff time and rack-up legal bills for the city. The flags used to go up under the community recognition program started back in 2016 for charities, awareness campaigns, and community events. Council added national flags in 2017, but things got heated with recent raisings. Protests hit hard after the Palestinian flag went up in November with Jewish groups calling it divisive. Now pro-Palestinian folks are pushing to scrap a plan Israeli flag raise this month, adding to the tension. The new rule kicks in right away and applies retroactively, cancelling all prior approvals. It even bans lighting the civic center clock tower in national

1:00colors, sticking to just Canada's. Parish says residents from around the world come here to leave conflicts behind and embrace Canada. She's handing out free, full-size Canadian flags at after. City Hall. National flags can still fly on other city property or at community events and the recognition program rolls on for nonprofits. Toronto's doing something similar at City Hall, but there starts in December and lets scheduled ones finish. Mrs. Saga is drawing a clear line to keep the peace.