N.S. regulators insist funeral home staff were responsible for wrongful cremation

Everyone agrees that Forest Haven Memorial Gardens in Sydney, N.S., cremated the wrong body in December 2021.

But beyond that, the finger of blame is being pointed in several directions.

It is the second wrongful cremation in the province in the last five years.

Nova Scotia regulators continue to insist the employees of a Cape Breton funeral home and its body delivery service are responsible for a wrongful cremation, despite a recent court ruling.

Last week, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Judge Timothy Gabriel ruled that Forest Haven funeral director Joe Curry was not legally responsible for the wrongful cremation.

The judge said the medical examiner's office handed the wrong body to Forest Haven's delivery service, known as Compassionate Body Removal Services, but the medical examiner has denied that.

'Unfortunate' ruling

Kortney Adams, executive manager for the Board of Registration of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, said the funeral-professional regulator is still reviewing the judge's decision and no one would be available for an interview.

But in an email, Adams said it is "unfortunate that this honourable court has ruled against the actualities and practicality of the matter and that it has been decided that a wrongful cremation, despite the current legislation, has not been deemed unprofessional or a wrongdoing."

Provincial regulations require funeral homes and crematoriums to have documented standardized processes for body identification to maintain what the province calls a chain of custody.

Those were added to provincial legislation in 2018 after the wrongful cremation of a Berwick woman by a different funeral home.

At the time, the provincial funeral service association called on the province to define what was required for a documented process, but was unsuccessful.

Adams said the board wants stronger regulations on chain of custody and body identification.

The majority of funeral professionals go above and beyond minimum standards, but "the funeral director is the trusted individual who has the last responsibilities to ensure that human remains are properly identified before a cremation is performed," Adams said.

Province reviewing regulations

"The board is not satisfied this procedure was properly executed, or this situation would not have come before us and the wrong individual would not have been cremated."

Service Nova Scotia, which regulates funeral homes and crematoriums, also declined an interview request.

In an email, the department said it is "reviewing our regulations to see if there are opportunities to strengthen them to ensure something like this does not happen again."

It also said the province investigated Forest Haven last year and it stands by its ruling.

In the decision, Kelly Wyer, the registrar of embalmers and funeral directors, confirmed a security guard at the hospital handed over the wrong body to the delivery service.

Nova Scotia Health has refused to comment on what happened in the hospital.

Staff should have checked

But the registrar said the person receiving the body should have checked to make sure they had the correct human remains and the funeral director also should have checked.

The decision said Forest Haven did not have a documented standardized process for identifying bodies.

"The evidence shows Forest Haven made two specific errors that led to the mistaken cremation of [redacted]," Wyer said.

"The first error was when [Compassionate Body Removal Service] transferred a body with the incorrect [medical examiner] case number on the bag and delivered it to Forest Haven, and the second error was when the funeral director in charge did not check the ID of the deceased before cremation."

Forest Haven owner Dave Wilton also declined an interview request, but sent an emailed statement.

The government is entitled to its opinion, but the court ruling supports Curry and the funeral home, he said.

"I think the important thing now is to move forward positively so that we can limit the possible [recurrence] of incidents such as this one," Wilton said.

"We are all interested in putting the interests of families first and foremost and this approach should govern our comments and actions."