UBC pride flag burned during OUTweek

The University of British Columbia'spride flag has beenburned, saycampus officials.

The flag was raised last Friday as part of the UBC Pride Collective's OUTweek activities and was discovered missing on Tuesdaymorning.

"We're feeling prettyoverwhelmedand we got a bit concerned about the safety of our members," said ElliottCordingley, a coordinator with the group.

Cordingleysaid a member of the collective alerted campus officials, who then contacted RCMP. It was then determined the flag hadbeen burned over the Family Day long weekend.

Campus security and RCMP are investigating the incident, UBC said in a written statement.

"UBC condemns this incident as an act of hate and in contravention of the values of equity, inclusion and respect deeply held by the university community," wrote the university.

Cordingley said it's not clear what the motivation was behind the flag's destruction his group hasn't been in touch directly with RCMP. All the same, he said a parade in support of transgendered people scheduled for Wednesday has been cancelled as a precaution.

"There's a lot of violence in the world against trans people and a lot of marginalization and oppression against trans people," he said.

Other activities planned for the week will proceed, with some extrasecurity precautions.

"We're in conversation aboutreraisingthe flag later in the year, but now we just want to focus on safety and healing andcarryingout the rest of our OUTweekevents," Cordingley said.

Cordingleysaid the university and the school's Alma Mater Society have been supportive and have spoken out against the incident.

He said there haven't been any other threats or incidents of violence directed at the group or its activities.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact campus security or RCMP.