Ontario school board told to change flag policy to mark Truth and Reconciliation Day
Written by The Canadian Press on September 24, 2025
TORONTO — An Ontario Catholic school board that made headlines for banning alternative flags, including those marking Pride, has been ordered by the province’s education minister to change that policy to fly orange flags on National Day of Truth And Reconciliation.
Paul Calandra’s press secretary Emma Testani says the minister has directed the provincially appointed supervisor of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board to allow the display of the Survivors’ Flag on Sept. 30, honouring those who were forced to attend residential schools.
The Greater Toronto Area school board – one of several placed under provincial supervision due to “mismanagement” – has a policy that only allows the Canadian flag, provincial or territorial flags and the school board flag at its schools and buildings.
School board trustees voted in June 2024 against allowing flags marking Pride and other events.
That policy was upheld in January and a motion to amend it to allow the Every Child Matters flag to be flown on Sept. 30 was defeated.
Testani says the directive to amend the school board’s flag policy currently only applies to marking Truth And Reconciliation Day next week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.
Cassidy McMackon, The Canadian Press