About two dozen former Robert Land Academy students gathered at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Thursday to demand better regulation of Ontario’s private schools as the closed military-style school faces allegations of abuse.

Their calls for change came after a CBC News investigation into allegations of historic physical and emotional abuse, and in some cases sexual exploitation, at the Wellandport private school.

Through their research and CBC’s reporting, it was learned that some instructors had criminal convictions while they were working at Robert Land in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“We cannot allow this kind of institutional abuse to take place under the name of education,” Chandra Pasma, member of provincial parliament and the NDP's education critic, told a news conference.

“There

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