HALIFAX – The RCMP is planning to release a report that documents the force’s involvement in Canada’s infamous native residential school system.

The Mounties issued a statement today saying the research report will be presented Saturday to the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is holding hearings in Halifax.

The statement says the report covers more than 100 years and represents the first complete assessment of the RCMP’s involvement in the Indian Residential School system.

About 150,000 aboriginal children attended residential schools, some of them forcibly taken from their homes by the RCMP under legislation that made attendance mandatory.

In May 2004, the RCMP’s commissioner publicly apologized to Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples, saying he was sorry for those who “suffered tragedies at residential schools.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a five-year mandate to document the history of residential schools, inspire reconciliation and produce a report by 2014.

(The Canadian Press)