Against the backdrop of grave violations against their children, the Catholic Church in Canada apologizes to the indigenous people

The bishops of the Catholic Church in Canada apologized to the indigenous people after finding - last August - more than 1,000 graves were found near boarding schools, according to a statement published on Friday.

"We, the Catholic Bishops of Canada, express our deepest regret and unequivocal apology," the statement said.

The bishops acknowledged the "sufferings experienced by boarding school students" and the "serious violations committed" by some members of the Catholic community.

For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on Friday on behalf of his country, calling on the Pope to do the same, and did not rule out a criminal investigation into this case.

Canadian historians say that between 1883 and 1996, about 150,000 Aboriginal children - specifically American Indians, Mulattos and Inuit people - were forced to "assimilate and perceive" the white community in Canada, and were forcibly separated from their families, language and culture, and placed in 139 of these boarding schools in All over the country in order to impregnate them with the prevailing culture.

Many of them were mistreated or sexually assaulted, and more than 4,000 people died in those schools, according to the investigative committee, which concluded that what happened was a real "cultural genocide".

In a suspected violent response, more than a dozen churches have been torched across the country in recent weeks, with protesters burning statues of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria, who was the ruler of Canada when the first boarding schools opened.

Earlier, Bobby Cameron - head of the Indigenous Federation of Canada - called for a boycott of Catholic churches in the country, against the background of the discovery of unmarked graves of children in its boarding schools.

The official Canadian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Cameron's statements in which he called on members of the Catholic community to boycott going to church.

Cameron said that Catholics should stop going to church until it pays compensation to the families of the victims of $ 25 million.

He explained that boycotting the Catholic Church in Canada is one of the most important ways to deliver a message for indigenous rights.