Grievers protest months-long cemetery standoff that’s left over 300 bodies unburied

The labour dispute has left more than 300 bodies unburied, with the remains stored at freezing temperatures in an on-site repository.

Grievers issued pleas on Sunday for the Quebec government to take action as a months-long standoff between workers and management at Canada’s largest graveyard drags on.

A strike by more than 100 maintenance and office workers has kept the Notre-Dames-des-Neiges Cemetery’s wrought-iron gates shut to the public since mid-January, with the exception of a few days in the spring.

The labour dispute has left more than 300 bodies unburied, with the remains stored at freezing temperatures in an on-site repository, the cemetery said.

Jimmy Koliakoudakis, whose mother died in February, said family members are “suffering.”

“Families are only asking for some dignity and some humanity involved in this labour dispute,” he said, demonstrating alongside a handful of other protesters outside the graveyard Sunday afternoon. “We’re stuck in the middle.”

“I don’t understand why the government isn’t taking a harder stance or a more direct step into this labor conflict.”

Others have seen no choice but to sneak onto the grounds.

Nancy Babalis said she still comes nearly every weekend to visit the plot of her 13-year-old son, who died 10 years earlier minus a day.