“Nobody should have any type of flag torn down, it is not what Canadians do.”
Those are the words of a local member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who had their American Flag cut down off their porch on Friday (September 1) morning.
The service member has requested to stay anonymous due to CAF media rules.
The CAF Member said the flag was flown in front of their house for completely non-political reasons.
“I was on a US base [in the Middle East] for 6 months working… I exchanged a Canadian flag with a US Service member, and he gave me that American flag,” they explained. “I hang the US flag up for Memorial Day and the month of September for 9/11.”
Tyler, the US Service member who traded for the Canadian flag, proudly flies the maple leaf in Georgia on Canada Day and Remembrance Day.
“It is this thing, we send pictures back and forth of our flags,” the CAF Member said.
The most recent picture of the American flag that Tyler received was not what he would have expected.
While the house was empty on Friday morning, the CAF member said someone walked up to their house and cut half of the flag down with a knife.
“I was shocked,” they said. “It was mid day… I can’t believe that happened. We have 3 boys, the flag is 10 feet from our front door… my kids could have gone outside, ran around the corner, and there is someone with a knife hacking at our front door.”
“We don’t fly it for any political reasons, nothing to do with US politics at all. I do it out of respect for the US Service people I have worked with,” they explained. “The rest of the time we have a Canadian flag up.”
Many other flags are flown in the neighbourhood, only the American one was vandalized.
“I don’t have it up for a political reason, but someone did that for their political reason,” they said. “To me, that is not what being a Canadian is about. We talk about things, we don’t act out like that… in the small community of Prince George I expect better.”
When he found out the news, Tyler “laughed and said that that sucked. He said it is too bad, because where he is nobody would do it to the Canadian flag. It just doesn’t happen.”
The hacked-up flag remains flying outside their home.
“Now it really makes a statement – the flag is torn, beaten up, but it is still flying. If they tear it down I will just put another one up… I don’t think I am doing anything wrong with what I am doing. It is a flag, get over it.”
“I have a big opinion of the US Service people I worked with, they are top-notch,” they added. “They put a roof over my head and let me stay in their camp. The Canadians depended on the US a lot to get that job done – and if I worked in an Italian camp I would fly an Italian flag.”
The CAF member said the RCMP have been contacted and are looking into the vandalism.
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