The City of Enderby is lowering its City Hall flag to half-mast in honour of the 215 children discovered at a former residential school site in Kamloops.
City of Enderby Mayor Greg McCune offers the following words to mark this sad occasion:
I offer my condolences to the families who had loved ones taken from them, never to be returned.
When we fly a flag at half-mast, we do so to mourn and remember. But that is not enough. We must also act, by joining our voices together to demand first truth, and then accountability.
This is a shameful chapter of our past, but we must be careful not to consign it too quickly to history; its sad legacy is very much part of our present and its trauma has scarred generations. We must do better at hearing the stories and confronting the truth if we are to make of justice something more than mere aspiration.
I will be asking our Member of Parliament and Member of the Legislative Assembly to implement meaningful actions, including creating a national day of mourning and fully investigating the former sites of residential schools across Canada, under the guidance of indigenous leaders, keepers of knowledge, and residential school survivors.
The shock and horror that we feel over the missing children demands that we shine a light on the cruelty of the residential school system and take action. We cannot speak of justice until we first talk of the truth.
Last Updated on July 6, 2021.