Canadian flag to be raised Sunday on federal buildings

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available for anyone affected by residential schools. You can call 1-866-925-4419 24 hours a day to access emotional support and services.

Canadian flags across the country have been at half-mast since the discovery of unmarked graves at the site of former residential schools in May.

Early Friday, the Assembly of First Nations outlined a path forward in order to respectfully raise the flags again as early as Sunday, while still acknowledging Canada’s dark history.

And on Friday, the federal government announced that the national flag on the Peace Tower in Ottawa and on all Government of Canada buildings will be raised at sunset on Sunday.

The flags will be lowered at sunrise on Nov. 8 for Indigenous Veterans Day, and then raised that evening.

They will also be lowered on Nov. 11 for Remembrance Day.

National Chief RoseAnne Archibald put forward a statement before the government’s announcement on Friday after the assembly sought input from Knowledge Keepers on how to navigate the change.

“We call for the federal government to raise the Canadian flag and to attach the ‘Every Child Matters’ orange flat to the Peace Tower and on all federal buildings starting November 7, 2021. Secondly, we call for the lowering of the flags to half-mast on November 8, 2021, in honour of Indigenous Veterans Day,” the statement reads.

She says they agree the flag must be raised before Remembrance Day so it can be lowered again for Nov. 11 to honour veterans.

More than 200 Indigenous soldiers were killed during the Second World War, participating in every major battle and campaign including Dieppe Landing and Normandy Invasion.

The Assembly of First Nations calls on the federal government to raise Canadian flags on federal buildings so they can be lowered for Remembrance Day, but also to attach the 'Every Child Matters' orange flag. #cdnpoli https://t.co/Z5ftq4YCIo

— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) November 5, 2021

She suggests the orange flag should remain until all children are recovered, named, and symbolically or physically returned to their homelands.

Efforts are underway by several communities to conduct ground-penetrating radar of former school sites, including the former Kamloops Indian Residential School and at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake.

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Lisa Hodgetts with the Canadian Archaeological Association says there are more than 100 more sites to search across the country. She says that will be both expensive and traumatic, and governments will need to step up to provide the resources for communities to get closure.