The commission heard testimony from survivors recounting illnesses such as tuberculosis, physical and sexual abuse leading to suicide, drownings, infants fathered by priests being killed, and children who ran away going missing.

Survivors also testified they witnessed children being buried in mass burial sites.

The report says poorly built and maintained buildings were fire traps. Nineteen boys died in a fire that destroyed a school in Beauval, Sask., in 1927, for example.

For about half the deaths that the commission identified, there is no known cause of death and for many children, the cause would have been determined by someone without medical training.

"Throughout the history of Canada's residential school system, there was no organized effort to record the number of students who died in residence each year."

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/look-residential-school-system-canada-195147792.html