VANCOUVER - A commission set up to help First Nations heal from abuses they suffered in residential schools is about to release an interim report and a new historical publication.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada will release the documents during a presentation this morning at Simon Fraser University's downtown Vancouver campus.
About 150,000 aboriginal children were forced to attend the schools, the first of which opened in the 1870s and the last of which closed in 1996.
The CBC says it obtained a leaked copy of the interim report and that it contains 20 recommendations that address such areas of education, health and commemoration.
The commission reportedly calls for all provinces and territories to develop residential school education materials and to hold education campaigns about the history and impact of residential schools in their jurisdictions.
The network also says the reports calls for a framed copy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's historic formal apology to residential school survivors to be prominently displayed in every secondary school in the country.
Already, the commission has taken 25,000 statements from survivors, visited about 500 communities and has heard from about 100 former school employees.
Earlier this month, commission chairman Justice Murray Sinclair called the schools acts of genocide.
In January, one survivor testified he kept his hair short so abusers found it harder to grab him and bang his head against a wall.
The interim report comes as the commission reaches the halfway mark in its five-year mandate, with a full report due when its mandate expires in 2014.
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