Confederate flags spotted hanging from Cambridge home

Confederate flags were spotted hanging from a Cambridge home, causing some residents to question why the Region of Waterloo has not banned them.

Regional councillor for Cambridge Karl Kiefer says that although he hasn't received any complaints about the flag, he is currently working with regional staff on a motion to see what options council has to try and remove these flags.

“Certainly now, it's going to be discussed and on the table,” said Kiefer, “I'm in the midst of working with staff on a motion to bring forward to investigate this – to see what can be done not only from a municipal perspective but a regional standpoint.” 

This comes off the heels of the region's anti-racism town hall which faced its own share of criticism, and a petition in the Township of Perth East.

Wellesley resident Melissa Bender works in Perth East and started the online petition after she kept seeing a Confederate flag being flown on the way into town.

“I instantly was in shock. I was disgusted,” she told the Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS. “Not only that they would fly a Confederate flag, but that they would fly one during everything that's going on right now with the Black Lives Matter movement and I drove by it for a week or two, and just got angrier and angrier.” 

She started the online petition in mid-June to ban hate symbols in the township, specifically the Confederate flag. At the time of writing, her petition has garnered over 1800 signatures.

“No matter how you look at it, it's a symbol that was built on inequality; it's a symbol of slavery; a symbol of oppression; a symbol of hate; a symbol of racism; symbol of white supremacy; symbol of discrimination.”

The Confederate flag has its roots in the American Civil War, where the Confederacy fought over the right to continue the enslavement of Black people. In the intervening years, it has also been connected to white supremacist groups. Several places in the United States and Canada have banned the public display of the flag.

“They've told me it's a symbol of southern pride. That it's a symbol of solidarity or maybe they just like the Dukes of Hazard, but no matter how you look at it, it always has been and always will be built on inequality.”

570 NEWS has reached out to Regional Chair Karen Redman for comment.

In an update Thursday afternoon, the Office of the Regional Chair stated, “Regional Council will be addressing public displays of symbols of hate and racial intolerance at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday.”