Actually, oldgit, some surviving witnesses say there were "ovens," of a sort.  In some residential schools, these were basement furnaces into which--witnesses claim--the babies born to students out-of-wedlock were thrust. Who were likely fathers? One guess. School witnesses--Native and non-Native -- recall hearing the clang of closing furnace doors and young mothers wailing, "where is my baby?" Some kids witnessed murder--kids kicked down stairs, thrown out of windows, hanged in the gym

Stated aim:  statements were made re: ridding Canada of Natives.  One even used the phrase often associated with the Nazis: "final solution."  RCMP were instructed to "use any force necessary" in rounding up the kids. 

Like most German citizens, most Canadians claimed ignorance. I tend to believe them, too. After all, these places were church-run, not the creation of some repressive government. weren't these schools built for kids' "own good"?  At the time, few--including my parents--thought otherwise