Adam Prudhomme
Editor
The flags outside of the Lennox and Addington OPP Napanee detachment were used to show support for two communities on Tuesday.
In celebration of pride month, a rainbow flag will fly outside the detachment for the duration of June. Alongside the Canadian flag it’ll fly at half-mast until June 8 in recognition of last Thursday’s discovery of a mass grave located on a former residential school in Kamloops B.C. The OPP joined several organizations and municipalities across the country that committed to lowering their flags halfway for 215 hours in honour of every Indigenous child found to have been buried at that site.
This year marked the second year that the OPP have flown the pride flag, which they say is a chance to commemorate the progress made towards equality. In 2018, Pride Toronto requested Toronto Police not be involved with that year’s Pride Parade, citing the police’s slow response to the arrest of serial killer Bruce McArthur who was targeting members of the LQBTQ2S community. Several members of the LQBTQ2S community felt Toronto Police dismissed their concerns and that investigations into missing person cases were insufficient.
L&A OPP Detachment Commander Insp. Scott Semple raises the Pride flag outside the Napanee detachment to signal the start of June’s Pride Month. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
“It’s not like by putting up a flag it changes everything,” said L&A OPP Detachment Commander Scott Semple. “But it’s certainly a very up front and visible symbol, and I would suggest that most police officers have always been accepting of diversity, but this is more a symbol of it because some people in the community might not interact with us and understand that maybe the image of the police has been tarnished whether it’s through the US media or even our own media and things that have happened that have become newsworthy, for the most part that isn’t representative of the majority of us.”
L&A OPP Cst. Shannon Cork added by flying the flag it can start a conversation in the community which can be the first step towards better understanding.
Semple said flying the flags and half-mast is their way of showing their support following last week’s horrific discovery in B.C.
“Honouring the First Nations tragedy in Kamloops, this community of course is connected to a First Nations community in Tyendinaga,” said Semple. “We support that police service, that’s part of our mandate in this detachment. It’s more important for us to show the fact that we do care about what’s happened and we’re here to support them and our partners in Tyendinaga and Mohawk Territory.”