Whether or not you had been in Surrey, British Columbia, or Coutts, Alberta, or Windsor, Ontario — or, particularly, if you happen to had been in Ottawa — you noticed a sea of red-and-white Canadian flags rippling within the iciness wind throughout this yr’s protests towards the government and pandemic mandates, recognized to a few because the “Freedom Convoy.”

Within the months since, the sight of Canadian flags fastened on automobiles and pickup vans or flying out of doors houses has some doing double takes: Is that flag an emblem of protest or of solidarity?

Canada followed its maple leaf flag in 1965, the overall bankruptcy in an extended and intensely contentious debate over whether or not to desert the Canadian Purple Ensign, the previous flag with a Union Jack within the most sensible left nook and a coat of hands at the backside correct.

A ways-right teams — together with the Proud Boys, which used to be co-founded via a Canadian, Gavin McInnes — have latched onto the Purple Ensign in veneration of white settler historical past. In 2017, 5 individuals of the Canadian Armed Forces had been amongst a gaggle of Proud Boys who carried the Purple Ensign flag whilst confronting Indigenous protesters in Halifax on Canada Day.

However neither the previous Purple Ensign flag nor the present maple leaf one has ever grew to become a lot of the rustic into flag lovers. Via and massive, Canadians simply aren’t that into it.

“There are nonetheless some individuals who ostentatiously fly the pre-1965 flag, an indication of disapproval however, it is more or less arcane,” stated Robert Bothwell, a professor emeritus of Canadian historical past on the College of Toronto. “You must be slightly subtle to understand what” it’s, he stated, including “so I don’t see that turning into a well-liked motion.”

Flags had been traditionally used to paint or give expression to Canada’s political actions and sentiments, Mr. Bothwell stated. Specifically in Quebec, flags got here to indicate whether or not the individual waving them used to be a separatist, nationalist or federalist.

“Canadians are proud concerning the flag, however the query, now not most effective with the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ is what does it constitute?” stated Richard Nimijean, a historian and trainer at Carleton College in Ottawa.

“It’s essential to remember the fact that we at all times renegotiate those symbols and what they imply,” he added.

The organizers of the convoy have stated the flags that demonstrators carried represented the rallying cry in their protest, “Freedom!” However some Canadians stated that when the protests, they might really feel cautious about the use of the flag to put across nationwide satisfaction even on Canada Day.

“I shouldn’t need to really feel awkward, and that’s what bothers me maximum,” stated Brian Lewis, who’s operating for a Town Council seat in Hamilton, Ontario, a town west of Toronto. “I’m happy with my nation and what it stands for,” he added. However, Mr. Lewis stated, in February, he began “to get appears to be like” for flying a Canadian flag on his automobile.

“I’m sitting in a car park of a grocery retailer at this time and I’m a bit of bit disenchanted,” via the shortage of flag presentations, he stated throughout an interview on Thursday. “However I perceive why, completely, and it’s unhappy.”

Claudia Laroye, a Vancouver-based shuttle author, stated riding previous some of the convoys in British Columbia throughout the iciness gave her the impact that the flag were “co-opted.” She stated the convoy left “the ones folks who didn’t consider that messaging questioning how lets fly it and now not seem to be supportive.”

“We will be able to show it this yr to contradict that messaging, in our personal small means,” Ms. Laroye stated in an e mail.

Lots of the symbols interspersed between Canadian flags on the protests final iciness represented American politics: flags and posters for Donald Trump, Gadsden flags bearing the word “Don’t Tread on Me,” posters of the U.S. Invoice of Rights and Accomplice flags.

The organizers disavowed the ones symbols, however the pictures raised some eyebrows. “I didn’t know it’s essential secede from a rustic you weren’t part of,” Stephen Colbert joked in a February section of his late-night display, regarding the Accomplice flag sightings.

Whilst those imported symbols have little historic relevance to Canada, they’ve come to extensively constitute values related to the some distance correct, showing prominently throughout the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rise up.

The preponderance of flags on Jan. 6 used to be “sinister,” stated Mr. Bothwell. He added, “It truly used to be intended to indicate that they’re the actual American citizens and the folk throughout the Capitol don’t seem to be, and I believe that has precisely the similar that means because the flags” of those that protested on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

[Read: Was Canada Trucker Protest a Blip, or the Start of Something Bigger?]

The “Freedom Convoy” started in January with loosely arranged teams of truck drivers making their means from different portions of Canada towards Ottawa to oppose vaccination mandates on the U.S. border.

However the protests quickly attracted different Canadians expressing normal antigovernment sentiment in gentle of pandemic restrictions, immobilizing downtown Ottawa and several other border crossings for weeks and prompting questions on legislation enforcement officials’ pleasant reaction.

Early on, Top Minister Justin Trudeau disregarded the protesters as a “small fringe minority” and rebuked some for desecrating public monuments and wielding Nazi symbols.

The Ottawa police ramped up safety this week for Friday’s celebrations, boosting parking patrol and towing greater than 70 cars between Wednesday and Friday. Fences had been erected round structures, together with the Very best Court docket, and police made a minimum of 5 arrests within the lead-up to festivities.

Whilst other people excited about February’s motion promised to resume their protest on Canada Day, they had been hugely outnumbered via cops and households making their solution to the primary reputable celebrations since 2019. Overdue Friday afternoon, on the other hand, one team a couple of block lengthy paraded across the perimeter of the capital’s downtown waving flags and shouting “freedom” prior to accumulating on the Nationwide Conflict Memorial to sing “O Canada.”

The aggravating buildup to this yr’s celebrations took on a special tenor from final July, when many of us flew their Canadian flags at half-staff and referred to as for the cancellation of vacation plans after loads of unmarked graves had been came upon on the websites of former residential colleges for Indigenous youngsters.

Trans Canada

• Nazem Kadri, a hockey participant from London, Ontario, scored some of the defining targets of the Stanley Cup playoffs, profitable his first championship after 13 seasons within the N.H.L.

• A.O. Scott, The Occasions’s leader movie critic, reviewed a brand new documentary referred to as “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Adventure, a Track,” about Montreal’s most renowned crooner.

• Timothy Caulfield, a Canada analysis chair in well being legislation on the College of Alberta who research incorrect information, stated analysis has proven that tough private anecdotes can undermine other people’s talent to assume scientifically. It’s a tactic used on social media platforms like TikTok, however those creators are pushing again on well being myths.

• In Op-Medical doctors, The Occasions’s award-winning sequence of brief documentaries, the photographer Kitra Cahana brings an intimate view “on what it manner to be alive in a state of profound isolation.” The sequence is narrated via her father, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, who is living in a long-term care facility in Montreal.

• In gentle of final week’s abortion rights ruling within the U.S. Very best Court docket, The Morning e-newsletter checked out how, in different complicated democracies, together with Canada, courts are extra restrained.

• There’s now not a lot of Toronto in “The Guy From Toronto.”

Vjosa Isai is a Canada information assistant at The New York Occasions. Observe her on Twitter at @lavjosa.

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