Hundreds of indigenous people from Ontario and Manitoba in Canada gathered on the plaza in front of the Toronto City Hall last Sunday to mourn the remains of 215 children found in a mass grave at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, the largest such institution in Canada's residential school system.

These residential schools were run by the Catholic Church and were part of a policy that aimed to assimilate indigenous children and destroy their cultures and languages.

Many say the schools have left lasting scars and trauma that has impacted the indigenous communities for generations.

Calls are mounting among the indigenous communities in Canada to search for unmarked graves on all the residential school grounds in the country after the discovery of this burial site in Kamloops. 

Canada's Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said on Wednesday that an apology from the Catholic Church is needed for its role in the residential schools. Pamela Palmater, a professor and the chair in indigenous governance at Ryerson University, said it is a "disgrace" that the Church hasn't apologized.

Hear what the families and relatives of Indian resident school survivors have to say about this tragedy.

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