Residential school deaths were common and have been linked to poorly constructed and maintained facilities.
[7]: 92–101 The actual number of deaths remains unknown due to inconsistent reporting by school officials and the destruction of medical and administrative records in compliance with
retention and disposition policies for government records.
[7]: 92–93 Research by the TRC revealed that at least 3,201 students had died, mostly from disease.
[11][7]: 92 TRC chair Justice
Murray Sinclair has suggested that the number of deaths may exceed 6,000.
[9][10][57] The vast majority of deaths occurred before the 1950s.
Tuberculosis death rates in residential schools (1869–1965)
The 1906 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, submitted by chief medical officer
Peter Bryce, highlighted that the "Indian population of Canada has a mortality rate of more than double that of the whole population, and in some provinces more than three times".
[7]: 97–98
[58]: 275 Among the list of causes he noted the infectious disease of
tuberculosis and the role residential schools played in spreading the disease by way of poor ventilation and medical screening.
[7]: 97–98
[58]: 275–27
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission wrote that the policy of Indian Affairs was to refuse to return the bodies of children home due to the associated expense, and to instead require the schools to bear the cost of burials.
[50]: 70 The TRC concluded that it may be impossible to ever identify the number of deaths or missing children, in part because of the practice of burying students in unmarked graves.
[64][65][66] The work is further complicated by a pattern of poor record keeping by school and government officials, who neglected to keep reliable numbers about the number of children who died or where they were buried.
[11] While most schools had cemeteries on site, their location and extent remain difficult to determine as cemeteries that were originally marked were found to have been later razed, intentionally hidden or built over.
[66][67]