You could hear a pin drop on Parliament Hill today

Hundreds of of people gathered outside on the lawn in the scorching heat to hear the government's official apology for the abuse that took place in residential schools.

At first the outside gathering felt like a bit of a festival with drumming and people greeting old friends.

But when the Prime Minister starting speaking the crowd fell silent.

There was spontaneous applause throughout Harper's speech. Once at opposition leader Stephane Dion's comments that we must hear from aboriginal people in their own languages" and again at NDP leader Jack Layton's comments that the residential schools "were racist."

But mostly hundreds of aboriginal people sat solemnly listening to every word.