TORONTO \u2014 An Ontario Catholic school board that made headlines for banning alternative flags, including those marking Pride, has been ordered by the province\u2019s education minister to change that policy to fly orange flags on National Day of Truth And Reconciliation.<\/p>\n
Paul Calandra\u2019s press secretary Emma Testani said the minister has directed the provincially appointed supervisor of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board to allow the display of the Survivors\u2019 Flag on Sept. 30, honouring those who were forced to attend residential schools.<\/p>\n
But Testani said Wednesday the ministry\u2019s directive to amend the school board\u2019s flag policy only applies to the Survivors\u2019 Flag, given the \u201curgency\u201d of the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really are only focused on getting that dealt with right now,\u201d Testani said.<\/p>\n
The Greater Toronto Area school board \u2013 one of several placed under provincial supervision due to \u201cmismanagement\u201d \u2013 has a policy that only allows the Canadian flag, provincial or territorial flags and the school board flag at its schools and buildings. <\/p>\n
Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board spokesperson Bruce Campbell would not confirm Wednesday whether the Survivors\u2019 Flag would be flown outside schools next week, saying the board is directing media inquiries to the Ministry of Education since it\u2019s under ministry supervision.<\/p>\n
School board trustees voted in June 2024 against allowing flags marking Pride and other events in a decision that sparked controversy within the school board and in the community amid division over youth and LGBTQ+ rights. <\/p>\n
Trustee Brea Corbet, who was in favour of flying the Pride flag, told a January board meeting that the policy \u201cis worse for every marginalized person in our schools, by excluding flags that equity seeking groups identify with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, groups such as the Campaign Life Coalition applauded the ban.<\/p>\n
The policy banning Pride flags was upheld in January and a motion to amend it to allow the Every Child Matters flag to be flown on Sept. 30 was defeated. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.<\/p>\n
Cassidy McMackon, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 An Ontario Catholic school board that made headlines for banning alternative flags, including those marking Pride,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":252160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50,39343],"class_list":{"0":"post-252159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-ontario-quebec"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115261695950346897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}