Council Committee denies Saskatoon Iranian Cultural Association appeal to fly ‘Lion and Sun’ flag

It’s a “no” from Saskatoon’s Governance and Priority committee to the local Iranian Cultural Association’s request to fly the “Lion and Sun” flag on March 21.

Pooyan Arab, the association’s executive director, said a request from his group was submitted on Feb. 1, 2026 for the “lion and sun” flag to be raised at City Hall on March 21 to commemorate Persian New Year and to highlight the struggles of the people of Iran.

During Wednesday’s committee meeting, Adam Tittemore, City Clerk, told councilors that approving the request could open the door to approving similar requests in the future.

Read more:

• Hoar frost causes ‘flash,’ power outage: City of Saskatoon
• Company of trucker who hit Saskatoon overpass ‘definitely’ responsible, STA says
• Saskatoon water main work will mean pressure drop for some

“We would consider this to be potentially precedent-setting as it relates to alternate flags of countries or past flags of countries,” he explained.

Arab argued to the committee that the flag was not the current Iranian national flag, but instead represented freedom and hope for the Iranian people.

“Applying the bylaw about foreign national flags to a symbol that no nation currently flies is an overreach of the intended purpose of the bylaw,” Arab argued, adding that, in his opinion, no other community in Saskatoon would be harmed.

Tittemore said the current protocol policy stated that if there was a flag or a proclamation that was politically motivated, it was also a consideration for rejection.

Couns. Troy Davies and Robert Pearce agreed. Speaking remotely, Pearce said the reason protocols were changed in Sept. 2025 was because there was hurt and offense taken by a group of people after the Vietnamese flag was flown at city hall.

“The whole point of this bylaw is to prevent the city from taking a political stance, right? Regarding any nation in the world … we can argue that this flag represents a people from the past and what have you, but at the end of the day, it’s still a flag that’s representing a nation, and it is taking a political stance,” he said.

Mayor Cynthia Block said while it was important to understand what challenges and experiences some groups in the city may be going through, city government may not be in a position to “get into the quagmire of geo-political issues.

“For a whole lot of reasons, not because of a lack of empathy, but because of a lack of jurisdiction and the lack of resources to even be able to start to discern those pieces,” she said.

A motion from Coun. Davies to uphold Tittemore’s initial decision to deny the flag raising request at city hall was unanimously upheld.