Canadian PM Will Apologize for Residential School Abuse

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Canada's Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced today that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will apologize on June 11 on behalf of the government for abuses suffered by former residents of native residential schools,

The apology will be made in the House of Commons in the government's throne speech.

"I am hopeful that the apology will help turn the page from the sad legacy of Indian residential schools and open a new chapter — one that is founded on renewed hope, faith, mutual respect and trust," Strahl said in a statement.

There are thousands of the former students who have reported that they endured sexual, physical and psychological abuse while attending the schools. The schools were run by churches and funded by the federal government from the 1870s until the mid-1970s.

In 1998, the Liberal government acknowledged in 1998 that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant for much of the last century.