Chalk this one up to a good deed by local community members.
On Sunday, members of the local legion branch visited the van Kessel family home to present 10-year-old Kayla with a Canadian flag and gift card as a show of support after her story concerning a chalk drawing of a Canadian flag prompting a bylaw infraction warning went viral on social media.
To celebrate Canada’s birthday, van Kessel used spray chalk to draw a Canadian flag in the grass on the boulevard of her family’s home. The next day, her mother received a bylaw infraction warning from the City of Barrie.
After outcry on social media, on July 3, the City of Barrie rescinded the notice. To read our full story on this, click here.
When Royal Canadian Legion veteran service officer Fern Taillefer read about the incident on social media, he decided he wanted to do something.
“When I heard what had happened, I took great offence,” said Taillefer. “It’s not right. You have to use some common sense.”
“This 10-year-old girl wanted to celebrate Canada Day. It was very patriotic. How could you not allow that?” he said.
Taillefer said the gesture was not a political statement, but that he wanted to take time to honour van Kessel.
“We want to let her know that she did nothing wrong, and that we, as veterans, are very proud of her,” he said. “We want her to remember this as a good story, not a bad story.”
On Sunday afternoon, Taillefer, along with three other local veterans - Bob George, Georges Ferris and Bill Sergeant - presented van Kessel with a Canadian flag as a gift, and spoke with her about what the flag means to them.
Former city councillor Arif Khan also attended to give van Kessel gift card to her favourite toy store.
After the presentation, van Kessel said that while she was disappointed she had to erase her flag off the ground, now her feelings had changed due to all the messages of support she’s received.
“Right now, I’m feeling excited and happy,” she said with a smile.
