OTTAWA — Eugene Arcand fought back tears as he stood in front a row of flags in bright October sunshine on Parliament Hill, holding up a photo of his residential school classmates.

“There are 32 children in that picture,” said Arcand, a member of the Muskeg Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan. “Only seven of us are still alive. Not one of us committed suicide.”

Arcand joined other survivors, their family members, assorted MPs and Minister of Crown Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty on the Hill Wednesday to raise the Survivors’ Flag to honour the memory of the children who came home — and the ones who didn’t.

Arcand told those assembled how Indigenous children were physically, psychologically and sexually abused almost daily at the schools.

“We’re not here to cry on your shoulders and look

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