The City of Brantford celebrated International Women's Day with a flag raising ceremony that took place at Harmony Square in downtown Brantford today. The occasion marks the first time International Women's Day has been celebrated with an official flag raising ceremony.

City Couns. Linda Hunt, Rose Sicoli and Mandy Samwell, John Sless and Mayor Kevin Davis were all in attendance at the ceremony. Sless mentioned that we was especially pleased to be apart of the ceremony with his three fellow women councillors. He said in his 10 terms as a city councilor they have never had three sitting women councilors at the same time.

Sicoli encouraged the women in the community to continue to look to break barriers and bring more attention to women and their rights until it no longer is an issue.

"Behind every successful woman is a village of other successful women who have her back. So to all women, keep up the hard work, keep building each other up, keep breaking down those barriers, keep encouraging our daughters to play hockey and take up skilled trades, keep having these hard discussions, keep fighting, keep grinding, keep going until we don't need to talk about this anymore."

The mayor said he was honoured to be at the flag raising ceremony.

"I'm very much honoured and delighted to be here today marking this occasion, celebrating the strength, the determination, and the resilience of women everywhere, and in particular here in Brantford. It's something that I think we should be celebrating daily, not annually," Davis said.

Sicoli and Samwell had the opportunity to raise the flag recognizing International Women's Day during the ceremony.

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