Flak over flags

MARK BONOKOSKI
The Toronto Sun

Monday, April 7, 2003

MONTREAL -- Heading into the city, the turn for Rene Levesque Blvd. approaching ... talk radio blaring, roaming from station to station, seeking the anti-American vitriol that seems more pervasive here in Quebec than in any other province.

And remembering one caller in particular.

A listener from Montreal had phoned in -- to CJAD here in Montreal perhaps, or maybe it was to CFRA in Ottawa -- and identified himself as Sam.

He was gleefully awaiting the upcoming Montreal Expos' post-Puerto Rico home opener, and that moment during the seventh-inning stretch when God Bless America is scheduled to be played.

He will be at the Big O with 30 friends, he said. And they are going for one reason and one reason alone.

And that's to publicly burn the American flag when Celine Dion's recorded voice -- or whoever's voice it is -- begins to sing that song.

"We're going to stomp on the American flag," he said. "Spit on it. Tear it into tatters. And burn it."

He then talked of the "terrorist regime" of U.S. President George W. Bush, and how he will be despising all Americans until they "oust" him in 2004.

Anonymity is a breeding ground for brave talk, of course. Always has been, always will.

Switch off the radio, circle back on to Hwy. 20, take Exit 63 into the working-class district of LaSalle, turn on to Elmslie St., and then find Superchute, a company that manufactures debris chutes and concrete tools, and whose clientele is 90% American.

Four flags fly from its flagpole today -- the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Quebecois fleur-de-lis, the U.S. Stars and Stripes and the British Union Jack.

A few days ago, however, there were only two flags flying, and they did not include the federal Maple Leaf or the Quebec fleur-de-lis.

Those two had been taken down.

Only the foreign flags remained.

British-born Andy Anson, 56, founded Superchute 14 years ago. His 32-year-old son, Ben, is the company's vice-president.

It was after Prime Minister Jean Chretien refused to "join in the liberation of Iraq," and opinion polls indicated that the majority of Quebecers were on-side with that decision, that the two Ansons took down the Maple Leaf and the fleur-de-lis and ran up the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack.

"It's really too early to tell whether all this anti-Americanism will cost us business," he said. "Business has been somewhat slower than usual, but everyone is glued to CNN.

"Time will tell, though. It's now wait and see."

There was no wait and see, however, when it came to packing up the federal and provincial flag and removing them from the company flagpole.

The reaction came fast and furious.

"You could not repeat what some of the e-mails said, or the phone calls," said Anson Sr., indicating one phone caller threatened to "firebomb" the $2-million factory he had rebuilt three years ago.

"I'd share some of the e-mails, but I don't want to further incite the crowd," he said. "It might help sell newspapers, but it would do us no good."

Ben Anson indicated it did not take long for the Montreal police to pay a visit once word of the flag flap got out through a story in a French-language Montreal newspaper, with them suggesting it might be wise to once again raise the Maple Leaf and the fleur-de-lis -- "if only for our own safety."

According to the Ansons, it was this father-son team's "embarrassment" over Canada's "cowardice" that precipitated their protest -- that, along with the anti-American comments coming out of both the front and back benches of the Liberal government, and the peaceniks who followed suit.

"We obviously offended more than a few people by taking down the Canadian and Quebec flags," he said, telling one newspaper that, while he was proud to be a Canadian, he was certainly not proud of the Canadian government's stance on Iraq.

"We had a lot of nasty e-mails accusing us of not being patriotic, and I've taken those e-mails to heart," he said. "We underestimated the emotional attachment to the Canadian and Quebec flags."

And so, three days after those flags first came down, they were put back up, and now fly together on a single flagpole -- the Maple Leaf at the top, followed by the fleur-de-lis, then the Stars and Stripes and, finally, the Union Jack.

"Until the war is over," vowed Ben Anson. "Until the war is won."

© Copyright 2003 The Toronto Sun