LAVAL, Quebec (AP) — A household in Quebec is trying to find solutions after discovering that their father’s stays didn’t make it to Canada from Cuba, the place he died whereas on trip, and as an alternative obtained the stays of one other man.
Funerals for Faraj Allah Jarjour have been scheduled for Sunday and Monday. As an alternative, his daughter Miriam Jarjour had been desperately calling and emailing as many officers as she will be able to, looking for his physique.
“Up till now we’ve got no solutions,” Jarjour stated. “The place is my father?”
Jarjour stated she was swimming along with her 68-year-old father within the ocean close to Varadero, Cuba, throughout a household trip on March 22 when he instantly had a coronary heart assault and died.
As a result of there have been no medical services, his physique was lined and left on a seashore chair within the sizzling solar for greater than eight hours till a automobile arrived to take it to Havana, Jarjour stated.
After that, it’s not clear what occurred.
Jarjour stated she adopted the instructions given to her by the Canadian consulate, and paid $10,000 Canadian (US$7,300) to have the physique returned dwelling to the household.
Nonetheless, the casket that arrived late final week contained the physique of a Russian man who was at the least 20 years youthful than Jarjour’s father. Not like her father, the physique additionally had a full head of hair and tattoos.
Jarjour stated the stranger’s physique has been despatched to his nation, however she and her household don’t know the place her father is.
When Jarjour contacted Canada’s consular authorities in Cuba, they blamed the corporate within the island that coordinates the return of the stays. Since then, she says she has been emailing different authorities officers, together with her Member of Parliament, who has agreed to succeed in out to Overseas Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.
“I’m truthfully destroyed,” stated Jarjour. “Up till now we’ve got no solutions. We’re ready. I don’t know what to let you know.”
Jarjour described her father as an energetic man who didn’t smoke or drink. The Syrian-born household man was “at all times smiling,” she stated.
The ordeal has left her mom exhausted, stated Jarjour. She and her brother are struggling by way of their very own grief whereas attempting to get solutions from authorities who all appear to disclaim accountability.
To date, the household has spent $25,000 Canadian (US$18,248), together with $15,000 Canadian (US$10,950) for funeral providers which have been placed on maintain.
International Affairs Canada stated in an e-mail that consular officers are working with Cuban authorities and the household to resolve the problem.
However Jarjour doesn’t really feel she is getting the solutions she wants and is hoping Joly will personally intervene to strain Cuban authorities.
“What I would like is somebody to assist me discover my father,” she stated.