Provocative or proud? Canadian swimmer Jennifer Carroll held a small Quebec flag last summer on the medals podium at the Commonwealth Games, after winning the silver medal in the 50-metre backstroke. The Canadian head swim coach recommended she be suspended for six months for breaching protocol. Swimming Canada says it has ordered her only to apologize to her teammates, the coach and the organization's CEO. Ms. Carroll has apologized to her team.

Rules are made to be enforced, and one wouldn't want to see an open season of show-and-tell during the medals ceremony. Still, it's hard to see the harm in displaying the flag of an athlete's province when the very reason for being there is to represent one's country, and the provinces are part of the country. The Quebec flag may, unavoidably and sadly, carry the freight of a separatist government on the international stage, but there is no sign Ms. Carroll intended the display as anything other than atribute to the province that funded her training after Sport Canada turned her down.

Holding a provincial flag on the podium is a positive gesture, not a negative one. If the rules are too rigid to permit such quiet displays, the rules should be re-examined.