City of New Westminster council votes to remove U.S. flag

A swift decision was made by New Westminster city councillors on Monday night.

Following a motion by Coun. Daniel Fontaine, councillors unanimously agreed it was time to remove the United States flag from Queen’s Park Arena.

“I’m pleased to bring this motion forward to council, and I wish it was under different circumstances,” said Fontaine. “It probably should have been a motion that was brought to council years ago, but so be it.”

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While the motion lays out that the removal is permanent, there is some leeway for the flag to go back up.

“Staff are authorized to temporarily reinstall the American flag if it is required to be displayed for official protocol purposes in relation to an event held at this facility.”

Fontaine says he has spent hours at the arena over the years and never really noticed the American flag, but that changed when U.S. President Donald Trump took office for the second time.

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“It struck me when I was at a hockey tournament and the kids had to look to the north of the building as they were singing ‘O Canada’ and they were singing ‘O Canada’ to the British Columbia flag, the Canadian flag, but also to a foreign flag — the United States,” Fontaine explained.

“I think there are two ways to look at this debate, one is we can focus on what’s happening down south, we can focus on the tariffs, on President Trump and everything he’s doing to Canada — we could do that, but I prefer not to do that. First of all, I don’t want to give him any more attention than he has already received. I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

Fontaine says the days of U.S.-based teams visiting the arena are in the past, and it’s time to move on.

“My experience and my understanding are that those days are long gone. Some may read it as being anti-American, it is not. I’ve been to the United States, I’ve been to tons of states throughout the U.S., and I love the American people,” he said.

“I differ with its leadership … this is not about people who live in the United States, it’s about making sure in our largest civic facility, in our arena that when our kids are playing sports … that when they look north and they’re singing ‘O Canada’ that they see three flags. One being the Canadian, the other being the British Columbian, but more importantly to me is that they have the City of New Westminster flag up there.”

Fontaine was passionate as he reiterated that the building is owned and operated by the city.

“It’s part of our heritage. I think the time has come for us to quietly … take down the U.S. flag, fold it up and put it away.”

However, Fontaine’s not against putting it back up if an American team visits.

“It’s our country, it’s our province, it’s our city, and those should be the three flags that are flying at Queen’s Park Arena as far as we can see into the future.”

He says staff will be directed to remove the flag “quietly” in the coming weeks.

The motion came up for discussion a couple of months ago, and at the time, the idea was shot down by the mayor and two other councillors because it wasn’t deemed urgent enough to be added to the meeting agenda at the last minute.

It also came at a time of heightened patriotism when fans were booing the American anthem at sports matches.

Back in March, the City of Cranbrook removed the U.S. flag from Western Financial Place Arena. That move was followed by the City of Mississauga, which took its U.S. flag down from its arenas and locations along Lake Ontario.