Canada to raise then lower flag to honor war dead

Canada's national Maple Leaf flag will fly high again after being lowered for months following the uncovering of unmarked graves at historic Indian Residential Schools, senior government officials said Friday.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said the flag will be raised Nov. 7 then lowered Nov. 8 to commemorate Indigenous Veterans Day. The Maple Leaf will be raised afterward.

It will then be lowered Nov. 11, Remembrance Day, as is tradition, honoring Canadians who died in World War I, World War II, Korea and Afghanistan. The flag will then be raised.

The flags were lowered since May 30 on all government buildings, including Parliament Hill, after the discovery of unmarked graves at a former residential school.

The schools were established to stamp out Indigenous culture from children. The first school opened in the 1820s and the last of the 139 schools closed in 1994.

About 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend the schools -- predominately run by Catholic Church orders -- and about 4,500 died and many were buried on school grounds. A significant number of children were sexually and physically abused. Over the years, grave markers, if there were any, decayed and disappeared.

That left the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a quandary: how to honor the two groups. The Assembly of First Nations suggested a compromise -- flying the Every Child Matters orange flag symbolizing the lost children alongside the Maple Leaf.

That was rejected. Under law, the Maple Leaf flag must fly by itself.

In a statement, the two government ministers said the five months of the lowered flag signaled Canada's sorrow for the treatment of the children.

"As the paramount symbol of our nation, the act of flying the national flag of Canada at half-mast for the longest period of time in Canada's history speaks to the extraordinary sense of loss," it said. "Raising the flag at this time will allow us to honor and remember important moments in Canada's history.

"Moving forward, the national flag of Canada will be half-masted to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation every September 30."

Sept. 30 was designated in 2021 as the day to honor the wrongs done to the residential school children.