Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
Published in the Toronto Sun, 9 October 2021
Well it’s official. Our virtue-signalling Prime Minister has now turned the honour of half-masting our national flag into a meaningless gesture. It was proper to lower the flag to honour the Indigenous children found buried in unmarked graves at the former Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, back in May. As more unmarked graves were found at other former residential schools, it was appropriate to similarly honour those Indigenous children.
However, flag protocol dictates that the flag must be raised again, after a clearly specified period. Although keeping the flag at half-mast for more than four continuous months is clearly a violation of flag protocols, a fitting time to raise it to full-mast again would have been on 1 October, the day after the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
In failing to do so, Prime Minister Justin “Spicoli” Trudeau has made a mockery of flag protocol, and in addition to his grievous insult to our Indigenous people by vacationing in Tofino on the holiday that he created, has shown just how little he really cares about doing anything of substance on Indigenous issues, like clean water and adequate housing on First Nations territories.
Keeping our flag at half-mast “…until Indigenous communities and their leaders decide it’s appropriate to raise them again,” serves as a great metaphor for Trudeau’s actions on most issues: Something that takes minimal effort, only gets the job half done, and leaves the big decisions up to someone else.
(He has built a career on meaningless gestures. But like everything else, he won’t be held accountable for any of it)
Sources: Rules for half-masting the National Flag of Canada – Canada.ca, Flags will remain at half-mast until agreement is reached with Indigenous leaders: Trudeau | CBC News, Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says | CBC News.
