How residential schools in Canada destroyed Indigenous children's lives

How residential schools in Canada destroyed Indigenous children's lives

In Canada, more than 1,000 unmarked graves have been discovered on the grounds of former church-run residential schools, where an estimated 150,000 First Nations children were sent as part of a campaign of forced assimilation for more than a century until 1996.

A historic truth and reconciliation commission was conducted in the 2000s.

In 2015 it concluded that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide and that unmarked graves would be found in the former school grounds, but the recent findings still shocked many Canadians and prompted calls for a new investigation.

Leyland Cecco explains how the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg in uncovering Canada's traumatic colonial past In Canada, Crisis Services Canada can be contacted at any time on 1.833.456.4566, or via text on 45645 from 4pm-12am ET