What they did was pretty bad, but I think a year in jail is too much.
[quote]http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100423/flag_case_100423/20100423?hub=World Police in California say two Canadians will be charged after they buried a U.S. flag flown to honour 9/11 victims and replaced it with a Canadian one following Sidney Crosby’s golden goal at the Olympics.
The district attorney’s office in Riverside, Calif., says 25-year-old Ryan Smith of Bermuda Dunes, Calif., and 26-year-old Matt Seifert of Palm Desert, Calif., will be charged with misdemeanour vandalism and flag desecration.
Both men are Canadian citizens.
The U.S. flag was placed on a La Quinta, Calif., mountaintop shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Investigators say the men replaced it Feb. 28 after Canada beat the U.S. to win the men’s hockey gold medal at the Vancouver Games.
It is not known if the men have hired an attorney. If convicted, they could face up to a year in jail.[/quote]
I can understand that after their Olympic exuberance they got drunk and went a little bit too far, but according to the original report, the tore up the US flag and buried it under a pile of rocks. And, it wasn’t their flag.
[quote]http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Canadians+accused+pulling+down+flag+facing+charges/2926510/story.html
LA QUINTA, Calif. — Police are recommending charges against two men who lowered an American flag in California and replaced it with a Canadian flag after the Canadian men’s hockey team won the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The police department in La Quinta, Calif., has requested that the district attorney lay charges of flag desecration and vandalism against Ryan Smith, 25, and Matt Siefert, 26, according to a statement issued Monday.
The flag in question had been displayed on a mountain top in La Quinta, a resort town about halfway between Los Angeles and the Nevada border which is popular with Canadian snowbirds. The flag had been "maintained by a private citizen in honour of the September 11, 2001 victims," the release said.
After Sidney Crosby scored the gold medal-winning goal against U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller on the afternoon of Feb. 28, police allege Smith and Siefert, who had watched the game at a nearby bar, trekked up to the top of what locals call Mount Happy and replaced the Stars and Stripes with the Maple Leaf.
Police said that the flag was “damaged” when they found it.
Smith, who lives in Bermuda Dunes, Calif., and Siefert, who lives in Palm Desert, Calif., are both Canadian citizens.
The flag’s keeper, Mayte Sterling, 58, said recently she couldn’t believe it when a neighbour alerted her to the prank.
“I was surprised, shocked,” said Sterling, a bartender at a private club. “It’s a special place.”
Her son, Robert Sterling Jr., climbed up the mountain in early March to replace the Canadian flag with a new American one. He said he found the old one torn apart and buried underneath a pile of rocks.
[/quote]
UGH. This story blows. Canadians should know better to act like that when visiting other countries. I’m cringing imagining how I would feel if a Canadian did this in Taiwan.
But a year in jail is too much. I think hey should just be made to issue a public apology and do some community service or something. 
People have been desecrating the flag under all presidents. I recall seeing a college classmate who did it when Bush I was in office.
