The Terranova and Labrador government made a change of legislation four months ago to address the growing number of unresated bodies that are carried out in freezer units at the Center for Health Sciences in St. John’s, but has not yet buried a single person.
According to the amended legislation, which occurred on December 24 and entered into force on January 1, the health and labrador health services (NLHS) have the power to bury unresolved remains after two weeks after searching Kin from Kin and then five days after the person’s identity is published online on a dedicated website.
The website also has to launch.
The spokeswoman for the health authority, Mikaela Etchegary, told CBC News in an email that the work is still ongoing in the legislation and the website.
“NL Health Services handles the unlawled human remains and will take measures to identify and contact people who may have the right to claim the remains, before publishing information on the website,” he wrote.
Etchegary said that the number of remains even in long -term storage facilities changes frequently, but from May 14 there were 27 bodies.
“To date, NL Health Services has not completed burials for unresated remains as we end the operationalization of legislation,” he wrote.
CBC News first reported The health authority stored 28 bodies in freezer units. In a alley on the property of the hospital more than a year ago. It was due to the lack of space in the morgue, which works as the office of the main forensic doctor.
During the summer, NLHS relocated freezers to the hospital underground garage and built a wall around him.
The Provincial Government changed the legislation to help bury unresated agencies saved in freezer units at the Center for Health Sciences. Four months later, none of those remains has been buried. Elizabeth Whitten of the CBC explains.
Procedure instead
The Minister of Health, Krista Lynn Howell, who took over the portfolio last week, says that there is a procedure for the health authority to treat unresated agencies.
“We hope that they follow the letter on how they carry out operations around these unresated remains. Therefore, they have a clearer way about how they handle this,” Howell told journalists on Thursday.
But even with the website that is not in operation, I would not say if the legislation was working.
“That would be our expectation of NLHS and we will certainly have more conversations about that with the CEO and guarantee that we make the most appropriate measures to, with dignity, handle any unresolved rest,” said Howell.
The progressive conservative of MHA and the health critic, Barry Petten, says that it is alarming that dozens of bodies are still stored and that it is badly reflected in the province.
“The province brought this legislation, they were going to create processes,” he said.
“We are discovering that there are still bodies in these refrigerators. It is simply satisfactory.”
Petten says no matter how someone lived or died, people deserve a worthy burial.
Given the legislation, it has not been operational after months, Petten says that he questions the government’s will to act on the problem.
“I don’t think it’s a satisfactory answer.”
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