UFV CHASI team reflects on experience as Pride flags damaged nine times over two months.

A display of outdoor Pride flags at the University of Fraser Valley’s Community Health and Social Innovation (CHASI) hub were reportedly vandalized nine times over the two months that they were on display. UFV CHASI Director Martha Dow explained that many people do not recognize this vandalism as an act of targeted violence: “They’re just these little flags. It sometimes takes a bit to explain and help people understand the significance.” In one instance, Dow shared that she confronted a student who was stomping on the flags, explaining that the act was harmful to the community watching from the CHASI window. The student then asked to come in and apologize. “There was this really great moment […] of someone truly understanding what these flags mean,” said Dow. At the end of June, the CHASI team took down the flags “on our own terms” with the intent of repurposing the flags into an art piece in the future.