Newsday - Canada's indigenous school abuse: who's accountable? - BBC Sounds

The Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has called on the Catholic Church to apologise following the discovery last week of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the country's largest residential school.

Between 1831 and 1996, Canada's residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 children from their families and their culture.

But Indigenous groups also want the government to be more open about what happened - and to make sure records and the names of the children who died are finally disclosed.

Nicole Schabus is a Professor of Law at Thompson Rivers University, in Secwepemc territory. Her husband, the late Arthur Manuel, was a First Nations political leader in Canada who, as a child, organised strikes at the Kamloops school to protest against conditions.

"The children were forced labour. They were basically looking after the fruits and vegetables that they never got to eat, which the church also made money (from) selling. The children at the schools were starving."