Canada lowers flags to honor residential school children

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked that flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast in honor of more than 200 children whose remains have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school

TORONTO -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Sunday that flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast to honor more than 200 children whose remains have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation. The Peace Tower flag on Parliament Hill in the nation's capital of Ottawa is among the buildings that has the flag at half-mast. “To honor 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 and all federal buildings be flown at half-mast,” Trudeau tweeted. Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia said the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.