Coroner's probe finds 220 additional deaths at Ontario residential schools

WARNING: This story contains details of deaths at residential schools.

An Ontario coroner's investigation has identified 220 additional deaths linked to Indian residential schools in the province — deaths that were previously unknown to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR).

The NCTR's memorial register lists 436 documented deaths at Ontario residential schools, so the confirmation of 220 more would bring the combined total of known deaths in the province to 656, and counting.

The Residential Schools Death Investigation Team, assembled by Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner in 2021, confirmed the details mainly through line-by-line analysis of public and protected records complemented by extensive archival research.

"In terms of the end result, we're bringing answers to families that never had them," said team leader Mark Mackisoc, an Ontario Provincial Police sergeant.

Under the authority of the Coroners Act, Mackisoc's team negotiated with numerous entities for access to records, including the NCTR's databases and police investigation files from criminal probes at three institutions.

Those investigations occurred at St. Anne's Indian Residential School near Fort Albany and St. Joseph's Training School for Boys near Ottawa, which both secured multiple convictions in the 1990s, while a recent criminal probe at the former Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School in Brantford was turned over to the coroner in 2023.

The number one cause of death the team encountered was infectious disease, but the files also reveal tragic and even horrific deaths that would likely meet the bar for criminal negligence if they occurred today, Mackisoc said, pointing to three examples.

In 1936, pupil no. 0991 at the Mohawk Institute died when the playground equipment she was playing on broke, sending a metal wheel crashing into her midsection, causing intra-abdominal hemorrhaging from which she later died in hospital, according to school records. Her name was Effie Smith. She was 13 years old.

In 1939, pupil no. 791 at the Mount Elgin Indian Residential School near London fell nine metres from an unscreened window, suffering intracranial hemorrhaging and fractured cervical vertebrae, school records state. He was being kept in bed alone due to illness, while the screen was removed for repairs but not immediately replaced, an attending physician wrote. His name was Courtland (Cody) Claus. He was four years old.

At the St. Joseph's Training School, three children were asked to get inside a tank to clean it out so it could be used to hold water. It had previously contained some kind of noxious substance, said Mackisoc, and the boys were using an incandescent light to illuminate it while cleaning. 

The last boy to exit knocked over the light, which ignited the fumes inside and caused an explosion. He died in the inferno.

Survivors' group not surprised

The coroner's findings are significant but unsurprising for Laura Arndt, executive lead at the Survivors' Secretariat, a non-profit organization representing survivors of the Mohawk Institute.

"The fact that his involvement has already brought forward 220-plus additional names speaks to the kind of expertise we need involved in this work," she said.

"That forensic nature being applied to records and documents, I think, is a critical skillset that's needed and that people need to hear about."

The secretariat has documented 101 known deaths at the institute — more than doubling the 48 listed on the NCTR's memorial register, Arndt said.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission wasn't resourced nor mandated to comprehensively document all residential school deaths, said Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer, but the coroner's office has unique expertise and powers it can use.

The investigating team also scours public sources like newspapers, archives and genealogical databases to help communities, families and individuals locate relatives who went missing.

"I understood one of the calls for action was to do more work, to answer more questions and see if there were more children," said Huyer, who joined Mackisoc during the interview.

"What we're doing is completely consistent with the work that was started by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and we're carrying that forward in a way that provides more answers."

Special interlocutor Kimberly Murray cited the Ontario coroner's work favourably in her Oct. 29 final report, which concluded that the children aren't just missing but were "disappeared by the state."

"Those children have disappeared" when parents, families and communities still don't know what happened to them, said Huyer.

"I think it's an accurate descriptor of the very, very sad and tragic events that occurred many years ago."

"Whatever term is used, they're definitely missing from the hearts and minds of their families," Mackisoc added.

"The vast majority don't know anything, or very much, about what happened to these children."

Jackie Hookimaw-Witt, a member of Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario, isn't surprised by the findings either. She sought help from both the coroner and the special interlocutor while searching for relatives who attended St. Anne's.

With the help from both offices, she located an uncle, Raphael Iahtail, who was buried in Moose Factory. But she still has questions amid conflicting accounts about her uncle's fate. 

She remains dissatisfied by the barriers she faced, like bureaucracy and privacy legislation that prevents release of certain records.

"That was frustrating because I want to share it with my family. I want to have a memorial," she said.

"You need this [information] as part of your healing journey, the process. So that's what I've been running into — the red tape."

NCTR endorses coroner's work

The government estimates more than 150,000 kids attended the church-run, state-funded residential school system. The NCTR has documented more than 4,000 deaths countrywide.

After starting in 2021, the coroner's team is now engaged to varying degrees with searches connected to 16 of the 18 residential schools in Ontario. The team has identified 500 deaths, of which 280 are known to the NCTR, the other 220 being additional. The deaths weren't always properly recorded. 

"Not all these death registrations are actually signed by a medical doctor, I'll put it that way," Mackisoc said. 

"Depending on the school, depending on the era, for a lot of different reasons, sometimes the Indian agent was allowed to sign them, and I'm going to say unfortunately, often the school principal was allowed to sign them."

In a written statement, the NCTR said it fully supports Huyer's work, which is consistent with Call to Action 71.

"We know that there are decades of research and work to fully understand the full breadth of all missing and disappeared children," said NCTR's head of archives Raymond Frogner.

"The NCTR will continue to add names to the memorial register based on survivor statements, historical documents in our care, and any new information from survivors' family members and other community researchers."

The register includes children who died within one year of being at a residential school and are considered to have remained under the responsibility of residential school authorities.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.

Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.