City council has voted to ban the ceremonial raising of foreign flags at City Hall and civic centres.In a 19-7 vote on Thursday night, the motion first put forth by Coun. John Burnside calls for the elimination of “flying flags of foreign nations, or any flags which include the depiction of a foreign nation’s flag” as of December 1. Only flag raisings currently booked will be honoured and take place. Councillors Lily Cheng, Mike Colle, Ausma Malik, Nick Mantas, Jamaal Myers, James Pasternak, and Neethan Shan all voted against the motion.“We’re basically penalizing 160 countries that we recognize in our city for a few groups,” Mantas said during the debate, while calling for public consultations on the decision.“I really struggle with this decision,” said Cheng, who spoke about seeing what it means to people to see the flag of their country raised. “Just because something is hard doesn’t mean we should shy away from it.”Several councillors had called for the ban, pointing to the present geopolitical climate, creating a deepening animosity between diaspora groups.In recent months, the flags of Angola, Morocco and Palestine have all been raised at Toronto’s City Hall, along with the Métis flag for Louis Riel Day, Toronto FC and the Trans Day of Remembrance flag.Burnside’s motion follows other cities like Calgary, who narrowly voted last year to ban the flying of foreign flags at its City Hall.The ban does not apply to the flags of Indigenous and Treaty partners, the Intersex Pride flag, the Black Liberation flag, the flags of professional sport organizations, and the flags of cities that are part of Toronto’s International Alliance program.