By Valerie Franklin (The Cascade) – Email
Following the burning of a rainbow Pride flag at UBC in mid-February, UFV will fly the Pride flag for one day in support of the LGBT+ community. The flag will be raised in a ceremony from 7 to 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 24 on the Abbotsford campus, and will be taken down at dusk the same day.
Although the flag-burning incident at UBC occurred over a week ago, director of Student Life and development Kyle Baillie says the date of February 24 was chosen to coincide with Pink Shirt Day, an annual anti-bullying initiative. The original plan was to fly the Pride flag for one week, but UFV has only one flag pole and is not permitted to fly more than one flag on it at a time. Baillie says the university will add a second pole or a yardarm to avoid this problem in the future.
According to the CBC, the individual who burned the flag at UBC has likely been identified. RCMP are investigating.
