![\"IMG_0584](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/cbc.ca\/e984a4fd52a59206324e83d2cfe96874.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA Pride flag made of strips of fabric and tied to a Toronto elementary school fence was burned in what may have been an act of vandalism last weekend, but a parent who helped to organize the project says the community has begun to replace it with messages of support.<\/p>\n
R.H. McGregor Elementary School students in the city’s east end put together the fabric Pride flag in late June as a Pride Month activity, according to Jessica Thom, a parent.<\/p>\n
“Each person had a very small part in creating a collective Pride flag,” Thom said Friday.<\/p>\n
“They were really proud of what they had done. There was lots of reports of students walking by with their parents pointing out the one that they had tied because they felt so prideful of it.”<\/p>\n
On July 5, parents learned the display, which depicted an intersex inclusive\u00a0flag, had been destroyed by a fire. Toronto police’s hate crime unit is now investigating.<\/p>\n
Since the fire, the school community has come together to create an ad hoc display with rainbow flags, signs made by students from paper and beads and positive messages, Thom said.<\/p>\n
“We really want to be reflective of the allyship of our school and our neighborhood and our community in general,” Thom added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since the flag was destroyed on July 5, the school community has come together to create an ad hoc display, with rainbow flags, signs that students have made out of paper and beads, and positive messages, according to parent Jessica Thom. (Martin Trainor\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The goal is to show that “all people are welcome here, that this is a safe place for them and that we will continue to stand as strongly as we possibly can to respond to hate with love and with representations of inclusivity,” Thom said.<\/p>\n
Thom said school community has also written an open letter to municipal and provincial elected representatives, asking them to stand with the school against hate and to create a permanent rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of Mortimer and Durant avenues, near Coxwell Avenue, which is used by many students.<\/p>\n
‘Particularly disappointing,’ principal says<\/p>\n
Denise Colby, principal of R.H. McGregor Elementary School, which runs from junior kindergarten to Grade 5, said in a letter to families and community members on Thursday that the display was destroyed by vandalism and the incident is “particularly disappointing.”<\/p>\n
Colby said the display represented the school’s commitment to creating a “welcoming, inclusive and respectful community” and the students took time and care to create it.<\/p>\n
“We are grateful for the support of our school community and are already making plans to replace the mural so that it can once again reflect the values of inclusion and belonging that are important to our school,” Colby said in the letter.<\/p>\n
Toronto Fire Services said Friday that they responded to a call about the fire at 6:55 p.m. on July 5, but it appeared to be out when they arrived. The caller said they tried to put out the fire with water and it was smouldering. Toronto Fire said the cause of the fire is unknown.<\/p>\n
In a statement from her office on Friday, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the act was unacceptable and she stands with those affected by the incident.<\/p>\n
Her office said Chow spoke to a member of the school’s parent council and expressed support for a rainbow crosswalk in the area. Chow was also encouraged to see the community coming together in support of 2SLGBTQ+ students and families, the office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pride flag made of strips of fabric and tied to a Toronto elementary school fence was burned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1942,7056,41940,41941,41939,48,39083],"class_list":["post-125144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-community","tag-elementary-school","tag-jessica-thom","tag-positive-messages","tag-pride-flag","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fire-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}