Remains of 215 children were found in a boarding school in Canada, which hosted the country’s indigenous communities. The discovery compelled the country to face its painful past.

The remains were found in the Kamloops Indian Residential School, which is situated in the western British Columbia province of the country, where multiple generations of the same family were enrolled.

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According to a report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, children from the Inuit, Metis and Indian communities were attending such schools. Out of the 150,000 students in a total of 139 schools, at least 4,100 died.

Underfunded and under-equipped, they became breeding grounds for diseases like tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia, reported AFP.

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Tricia Logan, an expert on the matter from the University of British Columbia said the schools had “notoriously high rates of physical and sexual abuse, disease, malnutrition and neglect that all contributed to high death rates”, reported AFP

However, some efforts from the modern-day Canadian authorities have been initiated. In 2008, authorities made a $1.5 billion settlement with the former students of the schools. In addition to the monetary settlement, the government in Ottawa also issued a formal apology for the treatment.