'Unimaginable' discovery in Canada: Traces of 215 children found in indigenous school

The children were students of the boarding school Kamloops Indian Residential School, in British Columbia, which closed in 1978.

The causes and times of death of the children are not yet known.

Rozan Kasimir, head of the community in Kamloops, British Columbia, where the traces were found, said the preliminary finding represents a unthinkable loss which was never recorded by the school administrators.

The school for the assimilation of Indians in Kamloops, which functioned as a boarding school, was the largest of its kind in the area. It was opened in 1890 under Roman Catholic rule and by the 50s had housed up to 500 students.

The boarding schools in Canada were compulsory schools ruled by government and religious authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries with the aim of assimilating indigenous young people.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commented that the macabre discovery was a "painful reminder" of a "disgraceful chapter in the history of our country". survivors, Harvey McLeod, speaking to CNNi about the psychological and sexual violence he suffered in the two years he was in compulsory school. He went to school in 1966 with most of his siblings. my mom and dad went, there was no choice, it was a requirement, it was the law. "And I can only imagine how my mom and dad felt when they had to send us there knowing what they experienced at this school themselves."