Flags around Delta are flying at half-mast to honour the 215 children found buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops
Mayor George Harvie announced Sunday (May 30) he had requested the flags at city hall be lowered in memory of the children. On Monday, the city announced on its social media channels that the flags at all City of Delta civic buildings will be flown at half-mast for 215 hours, one hour to represent each life lost.
In memory of the 215 children discovered on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Tk’emlups te Secwepemc territory, flags at City of #DeltaBC civic buildings will be flown at half-mast for 215 hours, one hour to represent each life lost. #everychildmatters 🧡 pic.twitter.com/ifPwdipZES
— City of Delta (@CityofDeltaBC) May 31, 2021
Flags have also been lowered at all Delta schools and at the Delta School District office in Ladner, as well as outside the Delta Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Centre.
RELATED: Flags in Surrey being flown at half-mast to honour 215 children found buried in Kamloops
SEE ALSO: Flags at federal buildings, BC Legislature lowered to honour residential school victims
As well, Harvie and his wife Gillian added a pair of shoes to a growing memorial dedicated to the 215 children located outside Delta city hall.
Gill and I came down to City Hall to place booties in remembrance of the 215 child victims of the Kamloops Residential schools. Please feel free to come down to @CityofDeltaBC city hall. #everychildmatters 🧡🧡🧡 #deltabc. pic.twitter.com/v3PZS0K8yb
— Office of Mayor George V. Harvie (@MayorofDelta) May 31, 2021
Similar memorials have popped up across the country since the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation confirmed Thursday that the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School had been found on the reserve using ground-penetrating radar.
The residential school was operated by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969 and had as many as 500 children enrolled at one time. The feds then took over the facility and ran it as a day school until it closed down in 1978.
A petition calling for a National Day of Mourning for Children found buried at a former B.C. residential school has topped 27,600 signatures as of Monday (May 31) morning.
READ MORE: Petition calls for day of mourning for children found buried at former B.C. residential school
The B.C.-based Indian Residential School Survivors Society is offering toll-free telephone support for survivors at 1-800-721-0066. Learn more at www.irsss.ca.
— with files from Katya Slepian and Kamloops This Week
RELATED: B.C. teachers to wear orange shirts to honour children found dead at residential school
SEE ALSO: B.C. teacher says students could be triggered by residential school discovery
SEE ALSO: MPs fast-tracking bill to create a national day for truth and reconciliation
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