Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 58

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Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 34

Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 34

CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Mon. Feb. 22 2010 4:50 PM ET

Thirty-four Canadians have been declared dead in the Haiti earthquake, and another 50 remain missing, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday.

Cannon said the missing may soon have to be officially acknowledged as dead considering the time that has passed since the Jan. 12 earthquake.

"It's getting to a tipping point where we will have to be able to make that determination," he said.

RCMP specialists are working to identify bodies as more are still being found in the rubble.

Canada has stopped running evacuation flights out of the quake-stricken country, after at least 4,618 people were flown to Canada on 48 flights.

Canadians in Haiti are now being asked to book flights on commercial airlines to return home, since the Port-au-Prince airport has reopened to the public.

Read more at:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100222/haiti_cannon_100222/20100222?hub=Canada

 

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Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 34

Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 34

Father's remains found in hotel's rubble


By Sue Montgomery, The Gazette March 2, 2010



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Roger Gosselin, 78, was buried under the rubble of Haiti's Montana Hotel, which was destroyed during the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Photograph by: courtesy, Gosselin family


MONTREAL - After 48 agonizing days, the Gosselin family finally received the news they were both dreading and hoping for.

The remains of their beloved father, Roger, have been found in the rubble of the five-star Montana Hotel in Haiti and will be brought home in the coming days to be laid to rest in his hometown of Charlemagne.

For the last seven weeks, his three grown children, France, Beno?t and Daniel, his former wife of 30 years, Yolande Roch, and his companion Sylvie Leroux, have bounced between the depths of despair of loss to the highs that maybe the 78-year-old would be one of the few miraculously pulled alive from the ruins.

On Saturday at noon, France received a call from Pierre V?zina, an RCMP officer on site of the aftermath of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, saying they had found Gosselin?s flight ticket and vaccination book. The stench, he told them, suggested a body was also there.

Saturday at 4 p.m. he called again to say they?d found a body and V?zina asked about the colour of Gosselin?s hair and state of his teeth. Sunday passed in excruciating silence. France?s emails to V?zina were answered with no news.

Finally, an RCMP officer knocked on her door at lunchtime on Monday to deliver the verdict ? the body they found was her father?s. Five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, as well as countless relatives, colleagues and friends, would soon be in shock and tears as the news rippled through the lives Gosselin touched.

?Even if we were waiting for this, we could never really be ready for it,? Beno?t said in an interview yesterday.

?And there is rage inside us,? said France. ?There?s been this huge lack of information (from the Canadian government).

?They couldn?t give us any news, answer our questions or even understand what we were going through and they left us in this black hole of information right to the end.?

Although a date has not yet been set, a funeral for Gosselin, a retired Universit? de Montr?al professor and health-care management consultant who was a leader in his field and had travelled the world, will be held at ?glise de Charlemagne.

Meanwhile, the family of Alexandre Bitton, the 36-year-old Pierrefonds resident who flew to Port au Prince that fateful day on the same Air Canada flight as Gosselin, are hanging onto the little news they received yesterday. Three more people have been found, as well as Bitton?s laptop case containing his business cards and his suitcase full of clothes.

?We?re hoping and we?re not hoping,? said his mother, Jocelyne. ?Of course we?re hoping he?s alive, but we need to end this. It?s been hell.?

Yesterday, Jocelyne Bitton, who has been frustrated over the lack of communication with the federal government, finally received a response from Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to the email she sent him last month, begging for information about the search for Canadians at the hotel. Cannon expressed sympathy and encouraged her to stay in touch with Monique l?Heureux, the consular affairs person in charge of the file.

Bitton is the last Canadian buried under the rubble at the hotel


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/Father+remains+found+hotel+rubble/2633869/story.html#ixzz0hYEeeU3u

 

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Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 34

Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 34

Body of Missing Montreal Jew Found

By: ELAD BENARI
Published: March 4th 2010

Alexandre Bitton
Pic: NULL

Following a month-long effort by ZAKA, the body of Alexandre Bitton has likely been found in Haiti. ZAKA?s spokesperson told Walla News on Thursday that a body had been found in the Hotel Montana in Haiti, and in its pocket was Bitton?s passport. INN reported that the body has been forwarded to a UN facility in order to identify it as Bitton?s.​

Bitton, a Jew from Montreal and father to a young boy, had arrived in Haiti on the day of the earthquake and was doing business with a local businessman. At the time of the earthquake he was in the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince. His business partner was the last one to have seen him. They met at the hotel lobby, where Bitton had problems with the check-in process. His business partner helped him out and then they separated ways. Ten minutes later the earthquake struck and the five-story, 140-room hotel collapsed. Bitton?s business partner, who survived the earthquake, did not know what room he was in.

ZAKA had announced a month ago that they would not give up on the search for Bitton and, in conjunction with the US delegation, worked in order to rescue bodies from the rubbles of the Hotel Montana. Every body that had been found by the US delegation was forwarded to ZAKA for identification.

During its stay in Haiti, the Israeli delegation made every effort to locate Bitton. A rescue team dug a tunnel underneath the hotel rubble in order to locate the hotel computer and find which room Bitton had stayed in. Unfortunately this effort had not been successful as the search was stopped due to concerns for the team?s safety.

ZAKA told INN following the finding of the body that it ?saw great importance in this holy mission. ZAKA?s mission is to make every effort, even if it means travelling to the end of the world, in order to give a Jew a proper burial.?

http://www.shalomlife.com/eng/7302/Body_of_Missing_Montreal_Jew_Found/

 

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Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 44

Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 44

Source:
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada international.gc.


March 5, 2010 (4 p.m. ET) Next update: March 8

? 1,901 Canadians located

? 30 Canadians unaccounted for

? 4,620 people evacuated on 49 flights

? 44 confirmed deaths

List of definitions


http://www.international.gc.ca/humanitarian-humanitaire/earthquake_seisme_haiti.aspx

 

[Missouriwatcher]

Re: Canadian death toll in Haiti rises to 58

"OTTAWA ? Ottawa says the number of Canadians killed in the Haitian earthquake has gone up to 58..."
http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...haiti-quake-100504/20100504/?hub=MontrealHome