The Canadian flag at Collingwood Town Hall is flying at half mast today.
“The Town of Collingwood has lowered flags at town hall to half staff in recognition of the horrific discovery of the unmarked buried remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.,” Mayor Brian Saunderson wrote on social media on Monday morning.
“This unthinkable loss is a stark reminder of the history and impacts of the residential schools on the First Nations, Inuit and Metis people of Canada,” he wrote.
The flag will remain lowered for 215 hours (nine days) to honour the lives lost.
Also on Monday, the town will be establishing a memorial at the Awen’ Gathering Place including 215 flowers for 215 lives lost.
According to Canadian Press, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put out a request on Monday for flags on all federal buildings to be lowered to half staff.
"To honour the 215 children whose lives were taken at the former Kamloops residential school and all Indigenous children who never made it home, the survivors, and their families, I have asked that the Peace Tower flag and flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast," Trudeau said in a statement.
The children's remains were located using ground-penetrating radar last weekend at the site in British Columbia's Interior.
Trudeau's flag call came as plans were being made to identify and return home the remains.
