TORONTO - Demonstrators protested inside a Toronto church today to raise awareness about the aboriginal children that they say disappeared from Canada's residential school system between 1840 and 1940.
The protesters have demanded that the federal government and leaders of several churches reveal the locations of unmarked graves where tens of thousands of children were buried near residential schools.
About two dozen protesters rallied outside the Metropolitan United Church in downtown Toronto, and a few went inside to display a banner at the front of the church.
With police standing by, they left shortly thereafter.
The protesters say they will hold more demonstrations at Anglican, Catholic and United churches across the country until their demands are met and more is known about victims of residential schools.
The federal government estimates as many as 100,000 children attended residential schools, which have long been assailed as hotbeds of physical and sexual abuse and other human rights violations.
The federal government apologized in 1998, saying that "attitudes of racial and cultural superiority led to a suppression of aboriginal culture and values.''
The federal government is in the process of establishing a truth and reconciliation commission which will investigate ways to identify the number of children who died at residential schools and the causes of death.
