Two Canadians face the music for lowering an American flag, maintained in honour of the Sep 11, 2001 victims, in California and replacing it with a Canadian flag.
Two Canadians face the music for lowering an American flag, maintained in honour of the Sep 11, 2001 victims, in California and replacing it with a Canadian flag.
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The incident took place after the Canadian men's hockey team beat the US to win the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The two Canadians - Ryan Smith, 25, and Matt Siefert, 26 - who live in California, face charges of desecration and vandalism, according to police in La Quinta, which is a resort town about halfway between Los Angeles and the Nevada border.
The resort is very popular with Canadian snowbirds and the American flag was displayed on a mountain top in La Quinta, according to the Canadian Press.
The desecrated American flag had been "maintained by a private citizen in honour of the September 11, 2001 victims", police said.
The two Canadians, who watched the US-Canada hockey final Feb 28 at a nearby bar, trekked to the top of the mountain after Canada scored the winning goal and replaced the Stars and Stripes with the Canadian flag.
Police said the torn American flag was found from the site.
"I was surprised, shocked. It's a special place," the flag's keeper, Mayte Sterling, was quoted as saying.
She said her son climbed up the mountain in March to replace the Canadian flag with a new American flag.
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