In Canada, the Canadian government has formally apologized for forcing hundreds of thousands of Native children into residential schools. For several decades, continuing well into the 1900s, Native children were seized from their homes and forced into church-run schools, where they faced abuse and disease. On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper read a lengthy apology before parliament.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “You have been working on recovering from this experience for a long time, and in a very real sense we are now joining you on this journey. The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.”

A formal truth and reconciliation commission on the schools began work this month.