万锦市必须按照升旗礼仪来悬挂加拿大国旗

10月5日，万锦市市政府前举行了一场有争议的升国旗活动。组织列治文山市和旺市类似活动的人取消了自己的升旗活动。但是，万锦市市政府事先说他们也取消了升旗活动，但随后又恢复了升旗仪式。

On Oct 5, a controversial China National Flag raising event happened at the Markham Civic Centre. It was cancelled by the organizer along with similar events at the cities of Richmond Hill and Vaughan but reinstated afterwards only for the city of Markham.

万锦市市长薛家平曾书面通知许多人升旗活动取消，但在升旗活动恢复后却没有通知他们。这些人中有许多人与准备抗议升旗活动的人有联系。抗议者是为了在升旗活动时抗议中国继续囚禁两名加拿大公民。抗议者称，中国将两名加拿大公民作为政治人质，目的是要求加拿大释放等待引渡美国的华为高管孟晚舟。

The Mayor of Markham Frank Scarpitti advised a number of people in writing of the initial cancellations but did not contact them after the event was reinstated. Many of these people are connected to protesters who showed up to protest the continued imprisonment of two Canadians in China under trumped-up charges – taken as political hostages to demand the release of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canadian custody awaiting extradition to the United States.



尽管如此，万锦市市长薛家平、华裔市议员杨绮清、约克区区议员希思（Jack Heath）还是出席了周六的活动。万锦市政府不是该活动的赞助商，但薛家平还是发表了讲话。我们将在以后谈此话题。

Nevertheless, the Mayor of Markham showed up for the Saturday event, along with Chinese councillor Amanda Collucci and Regional Councillor Jack Heath. The Mayor gave a speech, even though the City was not an event sponsor - that will be another story for another day.

在当天活动中，我认为我们的加拿大国旗没有得到应有的尊敬。我们的加拿大国旗不仅比其他国旗小（至少20％），而且褪色，破烂并且高度比其他国旗低一个半英尺。这让我非常不安。为此，我开始研究加拿大国旗礼仪以及万锦市使用的升旗规则。

At that event, I suspected that our Canadian National Flag was not properly honoured. Not only was our Canadian National Flag smaller (by at least 20%) than that of the other National Flag, it was faded and tattered and positioned lowered than all other flags by one and a half feet. This was very disturbing to me so I started researching into the Canadian National Flag etiquette, as well as the protocol for flag raising used by the City of Markham.

事实证明，加拿大没有象共产主义国家那样的“国旗法”。加拿大在所有联邦建筑物上都飘有加拿大遗产部负责管理的国旗。除魁北克省外，各省自己决定是否在省府建筑上挂国旗。

It turned out that Canada has no “National Flag laws” like some communist countries. Canada has a National Flag etiquette imposed by the Department of Canadian Heritage on all Federal buildings. The provincial governments voluntarily adopted this etiquette for their buildings, all except for the province of Quebec.



加拿大没有如何挂国旗的规定，也没有人管这件事。换句话说，你可以将加拿大国旗倒挂、将国旗涂鸦、或在家里焚烧国旗而不会有任何法律问题。这就是民主国家的文化：你可以自由表达对政府的不满！

The Canadian National Flag etiquette is not a law and it has no enforceable powers. In other words, you can hang the Canadian National Flag up side down, deface it, or burn it on your private property without consequences. This is what a democratic country is all about – the freedom to express yourself if you are not satisfied with the government!

那么加拿大国旗礼仪对加拿大国旗的位置和外观有何礼仪规定？你可以在下面的链接里看到：https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-etiquette/position-honour.html#a3。

So what does the Canadian National Flag etiquette say about the positioning and appearance of the Canadian National Flag? One can actually find it here: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-etiquette/position-honour.html#a3.

根据礼仪：如果只有一排旗杆，那些在旗杆后面楼上的人应看到加拿大国旗挂在最左边的旗杆上。如果有其他国家的要员来访，加拿大国旗的右侧即为该国的国旗。省旗应跟随其后，接下来为市旗。

According to the etiquette: On a single line of flag poles, the Canadian National Flag should be hung onto the pole located on the extreme left side when viewed by an observer facing the building in the backdrop. This should be followed by other National Flags (if raised) during dignitary visitations. The provincial flag or flags will follow to the right. Coming in last will be any municipal and community flags.



万锦市的升旗仪式没有遵循加拿大国旗礼仪，虽然他们声称他们是按礼仪行事。结果是，安省省旗取代了应该放在最左边的加拿大国旗的位置。按照礼仪，如果一排旗杆上有两面加拿大国旗，那么国旗应放在最左和最右两边的旗杆上，而不应该象万锦市府那样，将两面国旗置于中间。

The City of Markham flag protocol does not follow the Canadian National Flag etiquette even though they claimed that it is predicated on it. In that protocol, the Ontario provincial flag occupies the pole on the extreme left side normally reserved for the Canadian National Flag. When two Canadian National Flags are placed on a line of poles, they will have to be on both outside edges and not at the middle as practised by the city.

通过邮件沟通，万锦市市府的工作人员承诺要改正国旗悬挂的机制，并在将来对其他国旗尺寸进行审核，以确保我们的加拿大国旗至少与它们的尺寸相同。

My correspondence with Markham's City Clerk yielded promises to repair the flag pole hanging mechanism and future scrutinizing of other National flag sizes to make sure that our Canadian National Flag will be at least matching the same size as those.

我和其他市民一直在努力游说万锦市议会在不久的将来采用加拿大国旗悬挂礼仪，以免万锦市市政府在挂国旗时出洋相。

There is a continuous effort to lobby the Council members to adopt the Canadian National Flag etiquette in the near future, initiated by myself and others to ensure consistency and adequate assurances that our National Flag will not be disgraced again in public at our City Hall.