Families unable to bury dead as strike at Montreal cemetery continues

Dressed in mourner's black, Konstantina Ipsilandis holds her parents' portrait in her hands. She describes her mother as a strong and humble woman who called Montreal home for 60 years.

Before her mother died on Sunday, she had planned every detail of her move to her "next home" in Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in advance.

She wanted to be buried next to her loved ones there. She had paid for the plot of land, the tombstone and even the digging. But when Ipsilandis went to the funeral home yesterday she was shocked to hear that she would not be able to bury her for months.

The Ipsilandis family is not alone.

Due to a strike by maintenance and office workers at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, some families are seeing their loved ones put in cold storage until the labour dispute is settled.

After the funeral on Thursday, Ipsilandis's mother will be placed at a still undetermined location until the cemetery can do the burial.

"They told us in about six to eight months she's going to get buried," said Ipsilandis. "It's really ridiculous."

"We're in limbo," says Kathy Koutroubis, the deceased's niece. "We need closure and it's extremely cruel. We should be embarrassed as a city."

Stefanos Svourenos is a funeral director and a consultant at the Aeterna funeral home. He says the funeral home has 10 bodies in casks in storage, including one person whose family experienced similar burial delays in 2007.

Svourenos says the situation is taking a toll on the families who just want to mourn in peace and some are at the point of wanting to dig the grave plots themselves to bury their loved ones.

"All families are trying to bury their loved ones. It's a roller-coaster ride right now. It's emotional torture," he said.

"Unfortunately, in Montreal right now, the cemeteries are overwhelmed. No more space. And the only one in the Montreal core is Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, so if they're on strike, there's nothing left."

Delayed burials are disrupting services for religious communities, including the Greek Orthodox community.

"We have a tradition that we do the burial before the ninth day and then we do the other prayer on the 40th day. So all of this is out the window," said Svourenos.