Petawawa to fly Pride flag after council overturns decades-old policy preventing it | CBC News

A Pride flag will soon fly outside the town hall in Petawawa, Ont., after town council overturned a decades-old policy LGBTQ advocates had fought for years.

Before a standing-room-only crowd, Petawawa council unanimously passed a series of motions Monday rescinding a standing resolution that had disallowed the municipality from flying flags showing support for any cause, including the Pride flag.

“This really is about creating a safe and inclusive community where everyone feels that their identity and who they are themselves is accepted,” said Coun. Lisa Coutu, who brought forward the motions.

“It’s not about sitting there feeling tolerant. It’s about displaying it.”

Coutu, who also chairs the town’s equity, diversity and inclusion advisory committee, moved that council reconsider Resolution 11, which originally passed in 1998 and said council couldn’t make “public proclamations” unless they “pertain to matters which are solely and completely within the immediate mandate of council.”

In practice, it meant previous councils declined to fly a rainbow flag at town hall during Pride month, despite repeated requests from residents.

After the first motion passed, Coutu introduced a second motion calling for Resolution 11 to be rescinded, and a third allowing the town to fly flags recognizing community groups before it adopted an official flag policy.

All three motions passed unanimously, with six of seven councillors in attendance.

‘A more just society’

Petawawa Mayor Gary Serviss said the motion “emanated” from the work of the town’s newly-established equity, diversity and inclusion committee.

As deputy mayor during the previous council term, Serviss introduced his own motion in June 2021 to reconsider Resolution 11. He only managed to get four of seven votes — one short of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.

“Ever since 1998, our community has sort of been silenced,” Serviss said. “What this does now, is it makes us able to participate in what most other communities in our country are doing.”

In an email to a Petawawa resident in 2022, the town listed 33 “proclamation requests” that it said it had denied since 2007 due to the resolution. That list included a day of action against anti-Asian racism, military appreciation day and prostate cancer awareness month, among others.

Serviss said the resolution had “handcuffed” Petawawa by preventing it from recognizing the valuable work being done by a wide range of community groups.

Coun. James Carmody spoke in support of the motion Monday before voting in favour.

“It is no secret that our refusal to fly the Pride flag has led us to this point today,” he said, adding the LGBTQ community has had its Charter rights denied by all orders of government in the past.

“This is why we’ll fly the Pride flag in June. I want to see Petawawa take on a leadership role toward becoming a more just society.”

‘Symbols are important’

Former mayor of Petawawa Bob Sweet told CBC last June he had been approached by the LGBTQ community every year for the previous four years.

Each time, the town declined the request to fly a Pride flag, citing the need to remain neutral and adhere to Resolution 11.

Coutu said Petawawa is now preparing to host its first Pride event in June, and council has already begun the process of installing a new flag pole outside town hall, reserved for causes that are important to the community.

“Symbols are important, and I think [a Pride flag] is a beautiful, beautiful symbol,” Coutu said.

“[It says] please, be yourselves, and bring your best selves here, because we are going to embrace you as part of our social fabric.”