Canada apologizes for abuse at church-run aboriginal schools: Boarding schools were compulsory
Church leaders in Canada hope that action will follow a public apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to victims of a policy whereby aboriginal children were placed in residential schools run by churches under a government policy of enforced assimilation.
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, leader of the Anglican Church of Canada, said he was moved by the apology given by Harper in Ottawa on June 11 in the lower house of the Canadian parliament on behalf of the government, followed by apologies from other party leaders.