What happens in Ontario after bodies go unclaimed

Two or three times a year, Jean-Ren Berthiaumegets a call about anunclaimed body.

A fourth-generation funeral director in Hawkesbury, Ont., Berthiaumeroutinely workswith families on the final arrangements for their loved ones.

But these rare calls involve people whose bodieshave not been spoken for by a friend or relative for reasons logistical, financial or personal.

Whatever the scenario and no two cases are alike, he says Berthiaumeensures they are laid to rest properly, making good on a lessonhe learned from his grandmother.

"You have to respect everybody," he said. "Thedignity you bring towardsomeone who passes away will define who you are at the core."

A label of last resort

Ontario recorded 1,183 unclaimedbodies last year, part of a considerable increase in recent years, especially once the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

There were 438 cases in 2019, then691 in 2020, according to statistics shared by the province's Office of the Chief Coroner atotal that hasonly increased each succeeding year.

The cases are assigned according to where the person died, and it's ultimately the municipality's responsibility toensure the remains are taken care of.

In theOttawa region, which stretches fromRenfrew to Stormont County but records the vast majority ofits cases in the national capital,the annual average was 86 overthe last four years, reaching a high of 99 in the first year of the pandemic.

That's compared to an annual average of 39 cases inthe four years beforeCOVIDhit andleft many medically vulnerable seniors dead.

The Toronto, Hamilton and London regions also saw their caseloads riseduring the pandemic.

But as Louise McNaughton-Filion, an Ottawa-based regional supervising coroner for eastern Ontario, points out, a lot of effort goes into avoidingwhat she seesas a label of last resort.

"There are many, many more that are being searched for and we find next of kin,"she said.

And even when they can't, "there are others that are willing to claim them."

'An extensive search'

The coroner's office declares a body unclaimed if friends or family don't claim the remains.

If the person died in a hospital or nursing home, that facility is responsible for the resulting search for next of kin (NOK). In all other cases the coroner's office does that, with police acting as its agent.

A guideline documentstressesthat a dead person's apartment should be inspected quickly because their belongings, which could help infinding family members, might be removed after 30 days.

One month is usuallyallotted for the NOK search, six weeks if you include making thedisposition arrangements. But the processcan sometimes take months,according to Berthiaume.

A former paramedic, Berthiaume converted part ofa former ambulance bay athis funeral home property into a refrigerator with room for six to seven bodies. It's used in part as a temporary resting place for the area's unclaimed.

In Ottawa,the coroner's officereviews "the morgue census" every seven days, McNaughton-Filion said.

During challenging NOK searches, police will scour social media and their own records for family clues.

"We really do not decide that somebody's unclaimed from one day to the next. We make an extensive search," McNaughton-Filion said.

Invery rare cases where someone is both unclaimed and unidentified, the coroner's officekeeps trying to ID the personeven after they're interred, sheadded.

'Vast possibility of scenarios'

But sometimes no family or friends come forward to claim a body."We certainly respect that choice,"McNaughton-Filion said.

Next of kin are not required to claim and prior estrangement can bea factor.

Or it may be that the person died in a long-term care facility with no surviving siblingsand no kids.

"It's a vast possibility of scenarios," Berthiaume said.

The most common reason someone is ultimately unclaimed other than no next of kin being found is because of families' financial circumstances.

According to Sun Life Canada, the average priceof a traditional funeral with a burial in Canada is between $5,000 and $25,000, whilecremation can cost anywhere from about$2,000 to$5,000.

Social services agencies workwith families to help them claim if the funds are unavailable, McNaughton-Filion said.

• Did you lose a loved one but were unable to claim their body? Willing to chat about it? Reach out at guy.quenneville@cbc.ca

BeechwoodCemetery in Ottawa has a common ground, and a few historic ones, for unclaimed bodies.

"[The] need to access this type of service is ...heartbreaking during their time of grief," Nicolas McCarthy, a spokesperson for the cemetery, said via email. "It's a choice that most families do not make lightly."

In Hawkesbury, most unclaimed bodiesBerthiaume has dealt with have been those of nursing home residents.

His funeral home can't embalm or cremate the bodies without a family'sauthorization, but it does wash and dress them, and have someone who knew the person confirm their identity a neighbour, a friend oran employee, Berthiaume said.

Then he holds a service where people who knew the person can attend.

If a relative later asks how their loved one was handled, "We can show [them]exactly what we did ... and how [they were] treated with respect like anybody else," Berthiaume said.

Graves are usually unmarked, but cemeteries still keep tabs on where people are buried so families can visit or even have the bodies exhumed and moved elsewhere if they wish.

Berthiaumeuses a Catholic cemetery on the eastern edge of Hawkesbury, on a hill overlooking the Ottawa River.

On a partlycloudy day last springhe gave a tour, pointing outpatches of faded grass reserved for unclaimed bodies.

They were nestled amid more traditional burial plots marked withheadstones.

"That's what a cemetery should be," said Marc Bisson, managing director ofCatholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall, which owns the site.

"We wouldn't want to segregate a class of society from the rest."

'Our brother's keeper'

For McNaughton-Filion, it's"heartening" when the remains areclaimed.

Churches, mosques, synagogues,Indigenous groups and The Last Post Fund, which focuses on retired military members,have all agreedto claim bodies or help with their burialwhen others could not.

The Ottawa Mission, which runs the Diane Morrison Hospice for men and women in partnership Ottawa Inner City Health,helps people whose struggleswith homelessness, addictions and terminal illnessesmight have estranged them from loved ones, or who havebeen failed by the health system and society, said managerHephzibah Orelaja.

Since around 2018, the hospice has asked its clients to consider planningtheir own cremations or burials, like one couple who recently wanted to be buried side by side.

All have their names on a monument at Beechwood Cemetery to mark the area where they're buried, in addition to a place on a memorial wall at the mission.

Orelajasaidshe's seen first-hand the joy and relief families feel when they learn how their relative's remains were looked after.

"They're really grateful that their loved ones didn'tjust die on the street, and actually had a community that cared," she said.

"And I think it's important, irrespective of when you're housed or unhoused,for us to be our brother's keeper."

Ottawa Morning7:40Ontario is experiencing an uptick in unclaimed bodies

The province has seen an increase in the number of unclaimed dead bodies. How are coroners and funeral homes dealing with this? Well find out when we talk to a fourth-generation funeral director.