万锦市市长薛家平不要在10月5日的升旗仪式问题上做缩头乌龟

10月5日，万锦市市府大楼前升包括中国国旗在内的闹剧现在已经在脸书上引起了热烈讨论，并被主流报纸广泛报道。

The Oct 5 national flag raising fiasco in front of the Markham Civic Centre has now fermented into a viral discussion on Facebook and widely reported by main-stream newspapers.

作为关心这一争议的人，我已经在大中报上发表的文章中指出了升旗仪式中对加拿大国旗缺乏尊重的问题。如想阅读，请点击：http://chinesenewsgroup.com/news/667363

As someone who has been connected to this matter, I already wrote about the disgrace of the Canadian National flag earlier in this newspaper. Click here for that article:

万锦市“国旗门”丑闻存在四个问题：

There are 4 issues associated with the “Flag-gate” fiasco in Markham:

1）万锦市市长薛家平在升旗活动前宣布取消10月5日在万锦市市府大楼前举行的升国旗活动。当升旗活动恢复后，他却没有发恢复活动通知。许多居民认为，他这样做是为了减少升旗活动中可能前去抗议的人的数量。不仅如此，他参加了活动并发表了讲话。事后，他拒绝加拿大全国发行的报纸就此话题进行的采访要求。薛家平通常不会放弃在媒体上出头露面。万锦市民将不会放过这一丑闻及薛家平在此事件上的所作所为。

1) Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti announced the cancellation of the national flag raising event on Oct 5 to be held in front of the Markham Civic Centre. He did not notify recipients when the event was re-instated again. Many residents felt that it was done to diminish the number of expected protesters at the flag raising event. Furthermore, he participated in the event and gave a speech. He has since refused interviews from a National newspaper on this subject - something he would not normally give up easily. This incident and the Mayor's behaviour will be an on-going issue with the residents.



2）万锦市关于“社区升旗”活动的规则不全。举行升旗的标准和审批过程不严格。现行政策对举行申请升旗活动的门槛非常低。

2) Markham's City policy on “Community Flag Raisings” is inadequately structured as written. The criteria and approval requirements are not stringent enough to control applications and the exercise of due diligence for flag raisings. The policy requires a very low threshold for anyone to apply for flag raising and approval.

3）万锦市的升旗规则据称是根据联邦规则制定的（根据市书记员给我的电子邮件），但10月5日的升旗活动违反了加拿大遗产部的国旗礼仪规定。 当天在万锦市政府前悬挂的加拿大国旗既破还旧。加拿大国旗的尺寸比中国的国旗还要小，并且悬挂的高度比其他国旗低1.5英尺。同样，它的杆位也不在最左边，与国旗礼仪相反。这是对加拿大国旗和所有加拿大人的侮辱。
 
3) The flag raising protocol of the City of Markham, supposedly predicated on the Federal guidelines (according to the City Clerk’s email to me), are contrary to the National flag etiquette under the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Canadian flag hung on Oct 5 in front of the Markham City Hall was faded and tattered. The flag was of a smaller size than the China National flag and also hung lowered than all flags by one and a half feet. As well, its pole position is not to the extreme left and contrary to the National flag etiquette. It was a disgrace to our Canadian National flag and all Canadians.

4）活动的组织者–万锦市加华联会在万锦市散发了至少两种版本的升旗海报。其中一张海报上的组织者名单包括万锦市政府下的“万锦市宣传办公室”，但市长表示：“万锦市不参与这种第三方组织的活动，也不会给活动拨款。” “万锦市宣传办公室”负责万锦各类社区活动的拨款，它怎么会成为升旗活动的组织者？升旗组织者未经万锦市的许可而用了“万锦市宣传办公室”的标志。

4) The organizer of the event – The Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham (FCCM) issued at least two versions of the flag raising posters. “Celebrate Markham” was shown as “Organizer” on one of the posters, yet the Mayor stated that “ the City of Markham is not involved in these third-party events and no funding from the City is involved.”. “Celebrate Markham” is a grant program so how can it be an organizer for the flag raising event? Many believed that the use of that logo may not have been authorized by the City of Markham.



多伦多道明银行（TD）也在万锦市加华联会海报中被列为升旗活动的“组织者”，并在另一幅有关升旗活动的海报中列为“赞助商”。有人向道明银行查询，但未获得对方明确的答复。道明银行客户服务部发言人仅回答说，他们的参与并不表示他们在香港抗议活动的立场。要想得到答案，人们需要向道明银行的监察员提出书面投诉，以进一步了解道明银行在此事件中所扮演的角色。

The Toronto Dominion (TD) Bank was also listed in one FCCM poster as “organizer” and as “sponsor” under another poster for the flag raising event. An inquiry to TD Bank to clarify their role did not receive any definitive answers. A spokesperson from the customer service department only replied that their participation is not indicative of their position on the subject of Hong Kong protests. A formal complaint needs to be filed with their ombudsman to future explore TD’s role in this event.

有几个人已经给万锦市议会的议员们写信，要求市议会通过以下动议：

Letters were written to Markham Council members to bring forward motions in Council to:

1）在对社区团体举行的升旗仪式的规定审核和修改完成之前，暂停万锦市的“社区升旗”仪式。

1) Suspend the City's “Community Flag Raisings” policy until it is reviewed and modified to exclude the raising of National flags at the request of community groups.



2）采用联邦遗产部的国旗礼仪，并修改万锦市的升旗程序。

2) Adopt the National Flag etiquette from the Federal Department of Canadian Heritage and correct Markham’s flag raising protocol.

在面对居民的需求时，政客们有两种态度。一种是虚心听取，探讨解决办法和付诸行动的政客们，而另一种则是不闻不问，无可救药的政客们。

When dealing with demands from residents, there are two categories of politicians - Those who listen and will enter discussions and actions, and those that are unconscionable and unredeemable.

接下来，我们将静观那些坐在万锦市市议会的绝大部分市议员都属于那一类政客！

Let us see which group the majority of Council members belong to!