Canada ? In a historic speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized Wednesday to Canada’s native peoples for the longtime government policy of forcing their children to attend state-funded schools aimed at assimilating them.

The treatment of children at the schools where they were often physically and sexually abused was a sad chapter in the country’s history, he said in an address carried live across Canada.

“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country,” he said, as 11 aboriginal leaders looked on just feet away.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indian children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society.

“The government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and we apologize,” Harper said.

“We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions, and that it created a void in many lives and communities and we apologize,” Harper said.