Resident Tells Council Flags Supporting Select Groups Should Not Be Flown On City Property
By Robert Thomas
The flags displayed on some City owned buildings and property has one Moose Javian seeing red and white and only provincial colours when it comes to flags.
Addressing Council Becki Schultz said the City should not be displaying any other flags other than the Canadian and Provincial flags because it showed what she saw as favourtism and an attack on traditional values.
“Taxpayers’ dollar should not be used to support the breakdown of the traditional family in our society,” Schultz told Council.
Becki Schultz addresses Council - MJ Independent photo
In a presentation that had at least one Councillor shaking his head in disbelief and other Council members visibly not comfortable Schultz claimed the MJPS applied the law differently for those not represented by three flags flown at MJPS’s headquarters.
“Five flags, the Canadian flag, the Saskatchewan flag, the ‘so called’ Gay Pride flag, the Metis flag and what I think is a Treaty Four flag currently fly over the Moose Jaw Police Service headquarters. The flying of the Metis flag, the so-called Gay Pride flag and the Treaty Four flag indicate to me that the Moose Jaw Police Service’s application of the law is based on a person’s ethnicity or race or so called sexual orientation or all three,” she said.
Schultz went on to claim the MJPS and the Moose Jaw Public Library publicly supported the breakdown of the traditional family which she defined in her presentation.
“The Moose Jaw Public Library and Moose Jaw Police Service flying and displaying the so-called Gay Pride flag indicates or signals that both these institutions support and promote the breakdown of the traditional family. IE a man and a woman who within their marriage have children together.”
Schultz went on to tell Council her views on homosexuality and how in her opinion it was not “prideful.”
“There is nothing prideful about men having anal sex with other men. There is nothing prideful about women having sex with women having sex with other women. There is nothing prideful about supporting and promoting the breakdown of the traditional family. The traditional family is the bedrock of human civilization. There is nothing prideful of supporting and promoting the moving away from or going against the natural order.
“If the Moose Jaw Police Service’s application of the law is based upon ethnicity, race and so-called sexual orientation and because of the Moose Jaw Police Service and (Moose Jaw) Public Library openly support the breakdown of the traditional family then the Moose Jaw Police Service and Moose Jaw Public Library should fly and displays flags that represent heterosexual, incels and abstainers. Whatever those flags me be and flags of all ethnicities and races not just specific ethnicities and races.
Schultz went on to attack the rainbow coloured bench in front of the Rainbow Retro Store on Main Street stating it should be “repainted to match other public benches or it should be removed.”
Schultz expressed concerns regarding the flags hung at the Moose Jaw Police Station - MJ Independent file photo
Schultz said if the MJPS, Public Library or the City did not stop flying the flags of only certain groups then they should allow the flying of other ethnic flags including her own which she said she would happily supply to do so.
No Council member spoke at the end of the presentation which they unanimously voted to receive and file meaning no further action be taken on Shultz’s presentation. However Chair of the Committee of the Whole cut Schultz off by turning off her mic before her allotted 10 minutes to speak had elapsed.
During the following report on the City’s Strategic Plan Councillor Crystal Froese did speak out about what Schultz had said. She said the City was working towards being an inclusive community open to all.
“I think because of the previous speaker I think this is even more timely as we look at our strategic plan and assess our values and get an update on where we are,” Councillor Froese said, adding “but a couple of things jump out at me are the work we are doing towards reconciliation. And also our mutual cultural diversity strategies. That really speak to the fabric of our community and the diversity and inclusion we are working towards.”
“Supporting the disenfranchised but supporting all residents in our city in a very inclusive, open and strategic way.”
Councillor Froese said the City raised flags to support others in the community.
“It took me a few minutes to build my thoughts off the last presenter,” she said explaining why she never spoke out when the presentation to Council was made.