The Town of Huntsville said today that it would be lowering Canadian flags flying at all of its municipal buildings to half-mast “in honour of residential school victims and to acknowledge the injustice and horrific mistreatment experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada.”
With the continued discovery of mass graves at residential schools across the country, the municipality will leave the flags at half-mast indefinitely.
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Regarding Huntsville’s indefinite half-mast decision:
My wife, our daughter, and I went into Huntsville today (August 7, 2021) for essentially the first time (in a long time) all summer. We noticed Wal-Mart’s huge Canada flag at half-mast. We wondered what/who the reason might be, saying we must look at the news when we got home. I am just reading about the town of Huntsville’s June 26th (2021) decision and am presuming that Wal-Mart Huntsville joined suit.
I concur with Brian Tapley and Brenda Begg, especially regarding the loss of significance that seems inevitable with flags at half-mast over an indefinite period. This makes me wonder about the status of Orillia’s old giant Samuel de Champlain statue, which was dismantled a few years back. While there may not have been residential schools in Muskoka, there were instances of Native children being taken away from their families and placed with white families, even if (‘only’) under the category of Foster Care. (My wife — a born and bred Muskokan — knew of one.)
Perhaps it’s time for Muskokans to have a discussion, a dialogue, regarding the broader issue of recognizing and respecting regional Native pre-eminence. This would, of course, include/start with local Aboriginal communities, especially the Ojibway, but also the Mohawk. One of the most straight-forward initiatives I can think of is at least some re-naming of land/water-marks. Respecting — genuinely and tangibly — Aboriginal language(s) would be an important early step.
Andrew D. Davis
To Brian Tapley’s point: I was just discussing this with someone earlier today. I agree with you. And, eventually, we won’t even notice that the flag is half mast. It will lose its significance.
I can see the idea of somehow respecting, post event, the deaths at the residential schools but I see an issue here with the flag lowering.
If we permanently leave the flag half way up, then what do we do when another person or event of importance dies? Do we just then take the flag down and put in on a shelf?
Half mast flags should have d time limit and if we want something permanent, that is what maybe statues in parks or at the site in consideration should be for. I’d suggest statues at each of the residential school sites with the historical data embedded into them.
But would these sites suffer the same fate as Sir John A’s statue in Kingston some day when we are ready to renegotiate history another time?
Maybe somebody has a better idea, but the flag thing is only really good for a few days.