Mayor Jeromy Farkas is moving to end the raising of national flags outside Calgary City Hall at the same time a prominent local Jewish organization is questioning the approval of a Palestinian ceremony there Saturday.
Farkas posted on social media Thursday that he intends to submit an urgent notice of motion next week to amend the city’s flag policy, stating the tradition of national flag-raisings “of any country can unintentionally heighten tensions here at home.”
Calgary’s Flag Policy means any country recognized by Canada may have their flag flown at City Hall on their national day. But national flag-raisings are now creating division. Next week, we’ll move to end national flag-raisings at City Hall to keep this a safe, welcoming space… pic.twitter.com/7uXcIO4ovj
— Jeromy (Pathfinder) Farkas (@JeromyYYC) November 13, 2025
The existing policy allows citizens to request the raising of national flags from countries officially recognized by the federal government on their designated national days. Farkas said his motion would prohibit requests to raise the national flag of any country.
“These events, even when well-intentioned, increasingly risk becoming flashpoints for conflict and for the alarming rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia we are seeing in our city,” he posted on X.
Prime Minister Mark Carney in September recognized the State of Palestine, led by the Palestinian Authority, as a means to find peace in the Middle East.
A Palestinian flag-raising ceremony — approved by the previous council — was scheduled for Nov. 30, but was later moved to Nov. 15 to align with the date of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, and ahead of the mayor’s proposed policy change.
Two other previously-approved flag-raisings, planned to take place later this month, will still be allowed under the motion, Farkas confirmed on X.
The Calgary Jewish Federation said it was “disappointed and alarmed” to learn the Nov. 15 event would proceed.
“This was an intentional decision that enabled approval of a highly politicized and divisive event on a day that carries significant political meaning, and at a time when Jewish Calgarians are already experiencing unprecedented levels of fear and antisemitism,” the organization said in a statement signed by CEO Rob Nagus and board president Lisa Libin.
“Choosing this date is an egregious and deeply harmful action that intensifies the real risks and anxieties our community is experiencing.”
The federation also expressed concern about the planned motion to ban future flag-raisings, including the Israeli flag in May.
“Allowing one community’s flag this week while denying ours in the spring sends a deeply troubling and inequitable message about whose identity and safety are prioritized in municipal spaces,” the CJF statement reads.
Haneen Omar, a member of the Palestinian Community Association, said the flag-raising was never intended to be political.
“This is not a protest or a rally or a middle finger to anybody,” she said. “We just want to have our one day in Calgary’s history where we are just like everybody else.
“If nobody shows up to this flag raising
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because that’s what happens on a lot of flag raisings, they’re a very, very small turnout
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nothing would make me happier, because it would mean that we are like everybody else.”
Omar said she’s disappointed the decades-long tradition of raising national flags at city hall could come to an end.
“There’s been 56 other national flags flown at Calgary City Hall, so we are not the first, but apparently we’re (one of) the last
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and that’s the cost of giving us our identity,” she said.
“It would be heartbreaking to know that our one opportunity, our first opportunity, to be recognized as a community is now going to impact those future communities who have had their flag raised every year . . . and it was never a controversy or a problem.”
In a letter to the mayor and council, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Calgary expressed concern about the proposed change.
“We believe that if Council validates arguments designed to silence or exclude one community, it will not end with that community alone,” said the statement, signed by IJV Calgary Co-chair Beau Shaw.
“What we are witnessing is yet another instance of the Palestine Exception: it is acceptable for citizens to express national identity until Palestinians seek to express theirs,” the statement said. “This selective application of principles undermines the integrity of municipal policy and signals to Palestinian Calgarians that their identity and community are uniquely unwelcome.
“We urge you to uphold the City’s commitment to free expression and maintain the current flag-raising policy. With the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and hatred towards marginalized groups, our City must be vigilant against assimilationist policies that seek to undermine our democratic rights for the comfort of a few.”
Harrison Fleming, the mayor’s director of communications, said the city recognizes the proposed policy change is “hurtful for a lot of people.”
“This is something that is deeply raw and emotional for so many people, and the mayor was really clear in his statement with our desire to ensure that Calgary is a space that is safe, especially from racism, hatred and antisemitism,” Fleming said.
“This is the opportunity to take that moment of reflection and say, ‘Is this policy, as it stands, going to be something that continues to bring Calgarians together, or is it going to be something that creates division?’ ”
The Palestinian flag-raising, he said, was approved through an existing process with defined parameters.
“It is not an endorsement of one side of this conflict,” he said. “We have to follow the rules the way that they are.”
Fleming noted there is “a heightened awareness” of the optics if council moved forward with banning future flag-raisings, given the timing.
“If that’s a decision council makes, then I think there is some recognition that the last flag that would fly at city hall would be this flag on Saturday,” he said.