‘How can this happen?’ Surrey man’s ashes caught in shipping limbo amid Canada Post strike

When 65-year-old Dennis Walstrom died suddenly of complications from lung disease in Surrey late October, his daughter Emily Walstrom chose to have him cremated.

With Canada Post the only major shipping company in the country permitted to handle human remains, Walstrom, who lives in Montreal, arranged with the funeral home to have her father’s ashes packaged for transport.

“They told me they would be able to ship him out on the 12th and he would arrive on the 20th of November," she said.

On Nov. 13, the Canada Post tracker showed the remains were at a sorting facility in Richmond. Two days later, the union went on strike and there has been no update since.

“I don’t know where in transit his remains stopped once the strike started, I don’t know anything,” said Walstrom.

“I’m just sort of left wondering where he is, when will he arrive, and how can this happen?”

Walstrom said she is shocked human remains aren’t on the Canada Post essential deliveries list during the strike.

“You’re taking someone’s loved one from point A to point B, and yet now in the middle you expect to just say we are stopping it here,” she said. “There’s peoples’ loved ones that are just lost in transit, and we have no answers.”

In a statement, a spokesperson from Canada Post acknowledged that the strike poses a “difficult situation” for Walstrom.

“We sympathize, but unfortunately CUPW's decision to launch a national strike means we're not able to process or deliver items. Any mail and parcels in the postal network have been secured and will be delivered on a first-in, first-out basis once operations resume,” the spokesperson said.

“I have to trust that is what’s going to happen, but at the same time, I also trusted them to have him here by the 20th,“ said Walstrom.

While Canada Post and its striking workers try to hammer out a deal, Walstrom is left in limbo.

“I have no idea how I’m meant to accept that I have no idea where his remains are, when will be here, and when will we be able to lay him to rest.”