A rainbow flag celebrating inclusion was burned at the University of British Columbia campus over the weekend, prompting safety concerns for some students.
The flag was raised Friday near Brock Hall to mark the start of OUTweek, an eight-day event celebrating gender and sexual diversity at the university, then destroyed sometime over the Family Day long weekend.
The motive is unclear, but administrators confirmed the RCMP and campus security have launched an investigation.
“UBC condemns this incident as an act of hate an in contravention of the values of equity, inclusion and respect deeply held by the university community,” they said in a statement Tuesday.
Most of the OUTweek events will be going forward as planned, but organizers at the Pride Collective at UBC said a march scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled for safety concerns.
“We’re cancelling that just because of the external visibility of the event and for safety reasons for the people involved,” said Rachel Garrett.
Extra security is also being brought in for other OUTweek activities.
“A lot of shock is going around us right now,” Garrett said. “We’re just working on healing with our communities and doing what we can to create safe spaces on campus during this time.”
The Pride Collective said it’s possible a replacement flag will be raised, but it’s not likely to happen this week.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Sheila Scott
