The late Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev lacked the bureaucratic cheek to tell Pope John Paul II to go fly a kite. 

How history might have changed had Gorbachev learned from Toronto City Hall sign-o-crats who, for reasons shrouded in Kremlin-like secrecy, have said “nyet” to temporarily flying the Vatican flag on a pole in Nathan Phillips Square.

Perhaps if Gorbi had absorbed their pugnacity, we would still have the whole Soviet Union with us rather than just a hand-me-down commissar mentality dictating when, how, and whether an homage to JPII is permitted on civic territory even for a single day.

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As the Register’s Luke Mandato has reported, organizers of the annual Pope John Paul II Day were left scrambling when they were unceremoniously informed that raising the Vatican flag no longer met civic flag raising criteria.

Typical of commissariats the world over, the “criteria” were apparently changed at the equivalent of 3:09 a.m. on a Thursday with a blue moon by an apparatchik committee bunkered somewhere…well, it seems only the select apparats involved are allowed to know that level of top-secret detail.

For as former city councillor Chris Korwin-Kucznski, who actually led the first JPII Day flag raising almost two decades ago, told our man Mandato, it would be helpful to have at least some clarity on the flag flap.

“There seems to be some confusion here,” Korwin-Kucznski says. “This clearly deserves looking into the reasoning behind this.”

Give him mega points for diplomacy. Reasoning? That’s a very polite word to apply to a decision that, in common parlance, doesn’t appear to have a particle of sense behind it – and if it does, isn’t being explained beyond some mumbled bureaucratese.

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The ostensible “reason,” after all, is that the city no longer wishes to fly “religious” symbols from its poles despite the space where they would be displayed being touted on its website as a “garden that serves as a space for contemplation, gatherings and spiritual ceremonies….” 

Presumably, then, the contemplation being contemplated goes beyond individual navel gazing and extends as far outwards and upwards as…dare it be said…God? Nope. Verboten – at least if it leads to something being run up the flag pole to see who salutes, or bows heads in prayer. After all, that might lead to “spiritual ceremonies” that are – brace yourself for this – overtly religious. 

If that arbitrary and unreasonable interference in Charter guaranteed religious freedom isn’t cockamamie enough, there’s another element that moves it to the groundless. It’s that the Vatican flag is actually a national flag. Vatican City is a state, albeit the world’s smallest, with observer status at the UN. 

More, while John Paul II was Pope for 26 years, five months and 17 days, and will be a saint for eternity, he is also credited as one of the three key figures whose efforts turned Soviet Communism to rubble. So, the edict barring flying a flag to honour him is a denial of geography, politics, and history. Even if as a culture we are losing our religion, that’s a heck of an irrational swath to cut over one flag for one 24-hour period once a year.

But wait! Reason might have been shown the back exit but here comes confusion crashing through the front door. For as Luke Mandato reports, while JPII is now an Orwellian unperson for Toronto City Hall bureaucrats, there is a large city-approved Ramadan sign coinciding with the celebration of Eid-al-Fitr. There’s also a permanent “Indigenous spirit garden” constructed to meet Truth and Reconciliation Commission obligations.

So, the religious symbol arbiters seem to have concluded, it’s safe to punt the papists but not to ruffle feathers on Ramadan or intrude on Indigenous sensitivities. Classic CYA confusion tactics, yes?

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But what happens when April 30-May 1 roll around, they being the date for the celebration of Israel’s independence. Picture the Israeli flag. Blue, white, with that very large star thingme in the middle. Yes, the Star of David, he having played a somewhat significant role in the religion known as Judaism. Speaking of chutzpah, who is going to tell Toronto’s Jewish community, in the aftermath of Oct. 7, that it can’t fly its particular flag from a city hall pole.

Why would a collective of civic officials bring this religio-political-historic mess down on their own heads by making up a rule to prevent a flag from being flown? Especially when it honours someone that even Mikhail Gorbachev admired.