Inuit family furious to learn brother died 4 years ago in Montreal, was buried and no one told them

Joan Saunders didn't find it particularly alarming when four years passed without hearing from her youngest brother, Daniel (Danny)Saunders an Inuk man living in Montreal.

As Danny had had some run-ins with the law over the years, Joan thought her unanswered "Happy Birthdays" and "Merry Christmases" could be the result of an incarceration. Her other theories included a lost phone or a precarious living situation that prevented him from answering her.

What she never imagined was what actually happened: that her brother haddied and beenburied in a Laval, Que., cemetery back in 2018 without anyonetelling her family.

"It took four years for us to realize that our brother was gone and already buried," Joan said in an interview with CBC News.

There is no headstone at the grave where the 43-year-old father of three is buried. Onlythe number 212 written in orange spray paint marks the plot.

"Who gives permission for these people to do what they do? To bury our brother like that and not get in touch with anybody?"

According to the Quebeccoroner's office,it's up to the police officers assigned to the file in Danny's case, theService de Police de la Ville de Montral (SPVM)to find the contact information forthe deceased's family and inform them of the death.

While there is a process in place in Quebec to search for the next of kin, theSaunders family said it failed them as they had to find out about their brother's death via a complete stranger on social media.

The family is now demanding answers and accountability from Montreal police and the Quebec government.

Learned of death through Facebook

The last time any Saunders sibling saw Danny was on Nov. 12, 2017 athis housing unit in Montreal's Saint-Lonard borough, where he'd been living as part of a social reintegration program andwas supported by a social worker.

His family, comprised of 14 siblings, is originally from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., and part of the Inuit community in the Nunatsiavut region. Some of the siblings, several of whom now live in Dryden, Ont.,came to see Danny for a visit.

After that, he fell off the grid.

"Itwas the way Danny was, that's the way we grew up," said Tim Saunders, Danny's older brother.

But sometime last week, a Saunders sibling still living in Labrador received a Facebook message from a neighbour of Danny's, who said it hadbeen a while since he'd seen him, and after he did some digging, he found out he had died four years ago.

Concerned, the family did their own research. A call between Joan's daughter and theQuebec coroner's office confirmed Danny's death, which is estimated to have occurred March 1, 2018. He was buried almost three months later.

"I found out that my brother wasn't on earth here anymore through social media, and that's pretty bad," Tim said.

According to the coroner's investigation into the man's death, Danny'ssocial worker, smelling a foul odour outside his apartment during a visit on March 14, 2018, asked a concierge to accompany her to his unit. Through the patio door, they saw the man,lying deadon his bed.

The report concluded that Danny died of coronary heart disease, precipitated by poorly controlled diabetes and severe obesity.He did not appear to use alcohol or drugs.

Police made 'no effort' to find them, family claims

The Saunders family says it shouldn't have been all thathard to find them.All 14 siblings share the same mother and father, hence many share the same last name.

"All they had to do was even look up on Facebook and find his Facebook page. They could'vefound me. They could'vefound most of our siblings that way," said Elizabeth Adams, Danny's eldest sister, whose last name is "Saunders Adams" on Facebook.

Danny's jail and court records should have also been able to lead police to the family, says Joan, who lives in Montreal. She says police clearly knew where to find her, because whenever they were looking for Danny when he was in trouble, they'd turn up at her house.

WATCH| Danny Saunders's sister says her family needs closure and answers:

Family wants to know why it wasn't told of brother's death, burial 4 years ago

2 years ago

Duration 0:37

Danny Saunders's sister, Elizabeth Adams, says her family needs closure and answers after recently learning that their brother has been dead and buried since 2018, with no notice given to the family.

"He wasn't in trouble this time because he was dead. How come they didn't come knock on the door?" she said.

"They didn't care enough, the police or the social worker, to get in touch with[the] family. He had a lot of family and he had friends, too."

The Saunders siblings sayit's unacceptable that they weren't contacted in this age of technology. They accuse the SPVM of not doing itsjob.

"It seems like there was no effort, no nothing whatsoever was done to find [us]," Tim said.

Montreal police respond

When asked who decides whether a reasonable effort hadbeen made to find the next of kin, the Quebec coroner's office said that responsibility falls to the police department in charge. In Danny's case, that's the Montreal police.

Contacted multiple times by CBC News to explain the police service's role in finding Danny's family, the SPVMinitially redirected all questionsto the government's Directeur de l'tat civil, or registrar of civil status the agency responsible for registering births, marriages and death.

Finally, the service said that SPVMinvestigators dedicated to these types of cases "informthe family of the death when it is possible to reach them."

"Unfortunately, all the efforts made by the SPVM to locate members of Mr. Saunders's family have not been successful," it said in an emailed statement.

The service would not comment further on Danny's case.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Montreal mayor's office offered its condolences to the Saunders family and described what it went through as "particularly worrisome and unacceptable."

"We share their concerns. We will follow up on this file with the SPVMin order to prevent a similar situation from happening again," the spokesperson.

In a situation where no family member can be found by police, the coroner's office publishes the name of the deceased in the "Unclaimed Bodies" section of its website for a minimum of 30 days, to give the family a chance to come forward, the coroner's office said in a statement.

After 30 days or more have passed without a family member coming forward, the body is buried at the expense of the coroner's office.

Danny's name was added to the list on April 20, 2018 more than a month after his death. He was buried May 31.

In 2021, 31 people were buried after no family members were found, the coroner's office said.So far in 2022, 18 people have been laid to rest after no family members cameforward.

'System is failing Indigenous people,' says brother

Danny's siblings say they can't help but think their brother's death was taken lightlybecause he is Inuk and had a criminal record.They believe something like this would never have happened to a non-Indigenous family.

"They didn't care because he was a so-called criminal and because he was an Aboriginal. They didn't give a shit about him," Joan said through tears.

Amid the Every Child Matters movement, Elizabeth wonders how in 2022 something like this can still happen.

"We need closure, we need answers ... my brother's life matters, too," she said.

The family iscallingon the Quebec government to pay for their brother's exhumation, as well as his repatriation toHappy Valley-Goose Bay so he can be buriednext to his parents,where his three daughters can visit him.

Until then, they say they can only hope they're the last of a string of Indigenous families to have to go through this.

In February,an Indigenous woman namedTara Niptanatiakdied and was buried in Calgary the next month, unbeknownst at the time to her family in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. In December, a similar situation happened to another Indigenous woman named Courtney Wheeler, again in Calgary.

"The system is failing Indigenous people of Canada,and [it]failed my brother big, big time," said Tim, looking out toward the unmarked grave under which his brother lies.

"I will never, ever forgive them for it."