WEYBURN – A special flag was raised at Weyburn City Hall on Thursday morning to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the first flag-raising event to be held since the flagpoles were installed by the cenotaph in Memorial Park.
Deniza Blakaj Krasniqi, the new Settlement Advisor at Southeast Newcomer Services, emceed the special event.
Just before raising the flag, she said, “As we look at this flag representing over 30 nations, let it remind us that we are one community with no room for racism.
“Racism divides us and diminishes us. It denies opportunity and justice to so many. But today, we say no more. Today, we stand united against racism in all its forms,” she said, urging residents to carry this message forward, and “be champions of equality and justice wherever we go.”
The brief ceremony was held in partnership with the Government of Saskatchewan, City of Weyburn, Government of Canada, the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan and Southeast Advocates for Employment.
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was declared by the United Nations in 1966, to commemorate the 1960 Sharpeville massacre of anti-apartheid demonstrators in South Africa.
Canada launched its first annual campaign against racial discrimination in 1989.
