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Issue:25 |
| All flags should be lowered to
half-mast |
2006/12/4 |
| By SPOKE |
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There is an interesting
debate going on between the college and some of the
college’s staff and faculty. It all started last year
during the college strike when a faculty member at
Conestoga unexpectedly died.
Faculty picketing
outside the campus were surprised the flags weren’t
lowered to half-mast out of respect for Ardele Darling,
the faculty member who had passed away. When Walter
Boettger, the president of OPSEU Local 237, which
represents college faculty, approached the college about
lowering the flags to half-mast, he was told the flag
pole holding the college flag was broken. He insisted
that all flags should be flown at half-mast, not just
the college flag, out of respect for the faculty
member.
The college then removed the college flag
from the broken pole, put it on one of the other
flagpoles and lowered it.
According to college
policy, when a current faculty member, staff member or
student passes away, the college flag is lowered to
half-mast.
Not the Canadian flag, not the
Ontario flag, just the college flag.
When the
issue was discussed during a college council meeting
Nov. 13, Conestoga’s president John Tibbits said,
“Ultimately, I’d be embarrassed to lower the Canadian
flag after the death of a student or
employee.”
Tibbits said he was worried that the
college would stand out from other schools. “My concern
is when you start lowering the Canadian flag when anyone
dies, people will start asking, “What are you guys doing
down there?”
Tibbits should rest easy knowing
that the college won’t appear an oddball by following
the practice of lowering all flags when someone from the
college community dies.
All flags are lowered to
half-mast when someone from Wilfrid Laurier University
or the University of Waterloo passes away. In fact, the
same procedure is followed at the University of Guelph.
The website for the University of Guelph
describes the procedure of lowering all flags to
half-mast “as a gesture of respect and condolence for
the funeral day of a deceased employee, student or past
president or chancellor.”
Shouldn’t members of
the Conestoga community be treated with the same gesture
of respect and condolence?
Tibbits said the
college follows Heritage Canada’s policy by putting only
the college flag at half-mast after the death of a
member of the college, although even Heritage Canada’s
website (www.canadianheritage.gc.ca) contradicts college
policy.
According to the Heritage Canada website,
“Flags are flown at the half-mast position as a sign of
mourning … On occasions requiring that one flag be flown
at half-mast, all flags flown together should also be
flown at half-mast.”
Unless the college is simply
fighting for the sake of fighting, there’s simply no
reason not to lower all of the flags when someone in our
community passes away. It doesn’t cost the college
anything, yet pays dividends as a “gesture of respect
and
condolence.”
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