Indigenous delegates head to Rome seeking papal apology

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First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders, community members and residential school survivors are embarking on a historic trip to Rome this upcoming week.

Starting Monday, delegates will be meeting privately with Pope Francis, each with hopes about what can be accomplished. An estimated 150,000 children were exposed to the abusive, culturally and spiritually destructive system of residential schools that operated for more than a century in Canada.

In 2008, former prime minister Stephen Harper offered a full apology to former students of the schools and a year later Indigenous delegates travelled to Vatican City to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, who expressed sorrow and offered sympathies, but did not issue a formal apology.

Crystal Goomansingh reports on what community members and survivors are hoping from Pope Francis and what has led to this moment.