Flag-raising an issue after grim Kamloops find

The Maple Leaf was held at half-mast for `longest time in Canadian history'

Documents show some residential school survivors told Ottawa they didn't want to “wear” a decision to raise the Canadian flag, as the government spent months mulling how to lift the Maple Leaf from half-mast.

Hoisting the flag became a source of debate last year after it was lowered for months following the discovery of what were believed to be the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site last May.

Next week marks the first anniversary of that discovery using ground-penetrating radar by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Nation.

It sent waves of grief, shock and anger through the country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the flags lowered at all federal buildings, including the one atop the Peace Tower.

By June, federal officials were trying to figure out the timing to raise the flag, reaching out to Indigenous leaders and drafting up options.

“This is the longest time in Canadian history that flags have been at half-mast,” Crown-Indigenous Relations officials wrote in a briefing note released to The Canadian Press under access-to-information legislation.

How long the flag remains lowered is typically dictated by a strict set of rules. But when the federal government lowered it to honour Indigenous children who died and disappeared from the 140-yearlong residential school system, the date for lifting it was not clear.

Ottawa was working to return the flag to full-mast before Remembrance Day, documents show, which ultimately is what happened. The documents say survivors and those in the country's national Indigenous organizations saw the need to raise the flag in order for it to be lowered on Nov. 8, Indigenous Veterans Day, and Nov. 11.

Among those consulted was the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation's survivors' circle. The group met last fall with Carolyn Bennett, then the federal Crown-Indigenous Relations minister before she was named to a new portfolio.

“Several participants mentioned that they did not want Canada to use this engagement to justify the raising of the flag to full-mast,” officials said in a summary.

“They did not want to `wear' that decision,” the summary said, adding Bennett signalled she saw how not everyone agreed.

“Some said that they were not ready to see the flag go up to fullmast, others indicated that Canadians still needed to better understand why the flag was lowered.”

“Officials from the Métis National Council also offered the suggestion that the flag be lowered to half-mast for a week each time a new residential school burial discovery is made.”

In addition, officials said the organizations felt even though raising the flag was complicated, the issue was one that “the Canadian government will need to resolve.”

They also believed in the need for another “symbolic recognition at the national level” as a replacement if the flag were hoisted.

The office of the current Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister, Marc Miller, said in a statement it is working with the House of Commons, Senate Speakers' Offices and other MPs to hoist the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation's survivors flag on Parliament Hill in June, which is Indigenous history month.

It also plans to lower the Canadian flag every Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Chief Harvey McLeod of the Upper Nicola Band in Merritt said recently more debate is needed about what the flag represents to Indigenous people and Canadians, as opposed to talking about how long it should stay lowered or raised.