Saskatoon school honours soldiers as mission in Afghanistan ends

Watch the video above: local school marks the end of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan

SASKATOON – Brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers in the Canadian armed forces will soon be coming home. March 12 marks a day that will go down in history as Canada’s mission in Afghanistan has officially come to an end.

In Kabul, the last Canadian soldiers watched their country’s flag as is was lowered at the international military headquarters for the last time after Canada joined the hunt for the Taliban in 2002.

The cost, the lives of 158 soldiers and three civilians. Seventeen had ties to Saskatchewan.

In their honour , dignitaries recognized their contributions during a flag ceremony at the Legislature and countless schools paid their respects including here in Saskatoon.

“The assembly is important because it’s about how the troops are coming home from Afghanistan and I think it’s really good so they can be with their families and I’m happy that they get to come home,” said Joshua Zbitniff, student at James L. Alexander School.

All regional schools were asked to lower their flags and some went above and beyond in paying tribute to the men and women who served in Afghanistan.

As part of James L. Alexander School’s assembly, the choir sang about war and peace and students in uniform performed a flag ceremony.

“I think that they’re very brave and they deserve to come home,” Zbitniff said.

Canadian soldiers have been in Afghanistan longer than many of the students have been alive at James L. Alexander School and yet the importance of Wednesday is not lost on them.

“We believe that it’s very, very important that our student body know about the history of why the men were sent to Afghanistan,” said principal Shelia Pocha.

“We believe that it’s very important that we help our students understand that the military are very important people in our city, in our province and in Canada.”

Over 40,000 troops were involved in Canada’s 12-year mission in Afghanistan.

READ MORE: Canada in Afghanistan: was it worth it?

An important history lesson was learnt today, one that these students won’t need to learn about from a book but instead will be able to say they experienced as it happened.