When the CN Tower lit up in rainbow colours the moment controversial Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass took the mound on Wednesday, it sure seemed like operators of the tower's lighting system were making a statement on the player's anti-LBGTQ stance that fuelled a media firestorm this week.

In reality, the timing of this rainbow lighting display was either the most precisely-timed coincidence in recent memory, or the universe using the CN Tower as a stand-in middle finger to point at Bass as he appeared before a chorus of boos from hometown fans at the Rogers Centre.

The CN Tower's director of marketing and communications, Jennifer Paige, explained to blogTO that this was actually a pre-scheduled hourly display that, due to scheduling conflicts, did not line up on the hour — occurring at exactly 9:39 p.m. as Bass took the mound on Wednesday.

CN Tower lit up in Pride colours the moment Anthony Bass took the mound in Toronto https://t.co/F4ekGXHWVE #Toronto #CNTower #Pride #AnthonyBass

— blogTO (@blogTO) June 1, 2023

The coincidence was a bit too perfect to accept that no human intervention was involved, but Paige was very patient with what would turn out to be a bit of a grilling for details.

"We're not punking anyone," Paige assured me through a chuckle, adding, "We don't have the bandwidth."

Paige speaks of the "very strong position that the CN Tower and our owner Canada Lands has taken," adding that "if we were to make a statement, we would make a statement, you know what I mean?"

While she acknowledges that the tower's management and branding do stress inclusivity, "we would not engage in that kind of tit for tat, it is just not what we do."

But any coincidence, especially one-timed down to the second, should be scrutinized. So, just to be sure, I asked Paige one of the more ridiculous questions of my career: "can you say with absolute certainty that no one could have gone rogue for those 10 seconds where it happened?"

Yes, I really asked that bananas question out loud, and I was totally serious.

"I can say with 100 per cent certainty," said Paige, with what I'm guessing was a baffled grin.

Without skipping a beat, she explained just how unlikely a planned rainbow display to coincide with Bass' mound visit would be.

"There are guys who run our tech services team. They are usually run off their feet, supporting events and supporting all of the technical services demands in the tower. Typically, our lighting is programmed, usually, weeks and months ahead. We do have the ability to move more quickly than that. But to coordinate the second like that, I don't even know how we would do it."

"We've done responses to major world events, like if we've won the cup," said Paige, mirroring the ridiculousness of my line of questioning by referencing the prospect of NHL success in this cursed town.

She explains that during big moments, "I've had somebody on standby watching the game and triggering the lights after, but we would not have the ability to be this precise. It's a coincidence."

Paige also had an explanation for the out-of-place timing of this lighting event, admitting that "May and June are super mega crowded in terms of our commitments for lighting right now. I think, tomorrow, we've got four different charities. And we're also trying to straddle the top of the hour show at the bottom of the hour show and there's like a lot of sort of finagling."

"So, if our timing was off on the bottom of the hour thing, that may have been why it was a slight lag."

After crossing off every possible explanation beyond the official story from the CN Tower, I am going to have to call this one of the most coincidental instances of cosmic justice in both the history of sky-scraping landmarks and throwing shade at public figures.

Though many might not buy into the whole universe sending a message thing, those defending Bass' actions as a matter of religious freedom might consider taking this as a sign from above in more than one sense of the term.