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These Nova Scotians Want the Confederate Flag Banned in Canada

They say it's a symbol of racial hatred and want it recognized as such by the government.
Flags and trucks: history's greatest friends. Photo via Flickr user Duane Tate

Read: 'Racist' Painting Based on New Brunswick City Legend Taken Down After Public Outcry

Earlier this month, Saskatchewan resident Dale Pippin filed a human rights complaint over media coverage and debate around the Confederate flag, citing the "incorrect" connection drawn between racism and the flag. Now, a group in Nova Scotia is calling for Canadian governments at all levels to ban the use and display of the flag.

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Nova Scotia Citizens Against White Supremacy is arguing that displaying the flag should be considered a hate crime. Lyn Jones, activist and organizer, explained her shock when she saw a Confederate flag-painted truck in her hometown of Truro, Nova Scotia.

"It wasn't just a flag around the truck, the truck was painted with the Confederate flag. I thought, 'This is really, really scary.' I was afraid," she told the Canadian Press.

The flag associated with the American Confederacy has been the subject of renewed, intense debate since the massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17 of this year by avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof. Activist and filmmaker Bree Newsome removed the Confederate flag hanging within sight of the state capitol, for which she was arrested, before the state legislature voted to remove the flag from government property permanently.

Many proponents of the flag say it stands for "Southern pride" and "heritage." Dalhousie history professor Isaac Saney disagreed in an interview with CTV News.

"The flag is not just a symbol, it had a material impact in society," he said at a Nova Scotia Citizens Against White Supremacy Rally. "It is a universal symbol of racism. That is without doubt and I think that there is no place for hate symbols, for symbols of white supremacy, in Canada."

While the flag—one of the most recognizable symbols of the group of states that attempted to secede for the specific purpose of retaining the right to own and trade human beings—has no specific connection to Canadian history, some people feel a strong bond to the flag here.

Nova Scotia is home to a large population of black people, many of whom are descended from slaves who fled America. The province also has a history of anti-black racism on both the individual and institutional levels, from the forced relocation of Africville residents in the mid 20th century to the Windsor, Nova Scotia, man convicted of burning a cross on an interracial couple's lawn five years ago.

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