Deputy-Mayor Dallas Everest was the only councillor to vote against raising the pride flag. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

municipal politics

Everest explains rationale for voting against raising pride flag

Jun 14, 2019 | 12:03 PM

Deputy-Mayor Dallas Everest wants residents to know he supports the LBGTQ community, what they stand for and the cause they are fighting for.

Everest was the only member of La Ronge council to vote against raising the pride flag at a regular meeting Wednesday. There’s expected to be a flag raising ceremony today at 5:30 p.m., which will take place outside the town office. While Everest is in favour of installing a flag pole in Patterson Park to be used by the community for raising such flags, he believes the three flagpoles outside the office should be reserved for municipal, provincial and national flags as they should represent everybody.

“I feel at the town office, that’s how we should be is open to everybody, so I’m not picking any groups no matter religion, race – everybody is equal in my eyes,” he said. “With the people who were in the delegation who were speaking, they were talking about wanting inclusion and things like that and, to me, if we all gather around those three flags, we’re all the same. We’re all included under those three groups.”

Everest also talked about the risk posed if council is requested to raise a flag by a group who residents don’t support. For instance in 2018, the City of Prince Albert voted to end the practice of offering a courtesy flagpole to use after being sued by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Rights over its refusal to fly a pro-life flag. The flag included the message “Please let me live” and featured a cartoon fetus named Umberto the Unborn.

As the owner of KFC in La Ronge, Everest mentioned he has hired several openly gay people to work for him and never had any issues. He also noted he supports many other causes like missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, adding there are several issues that need to be brought to the forefront.

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“With the LGBT request they brought to council, I was in support of all the other recommendations they brought,” Everest said. “That was the only one I didn’t support for that reason. I just think [we could] be opening ourselves up to groups you maybe don’t want there.”

In the coming weeks, the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and Northern Village of Air Ronge councils will also be asked to raise the pride flag. Air Ronge councillors are expected to be asked at a regular meeting June 19.

There’s also currently a GoFundMe account set up to assist in covering costs for the Lac La Ronge Regional Pride Parade. There is a $2,500 goal and a list of items needed can be found on the website.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno