As Danny has had some run-ins with the law over the years, Joan thought her unanswered “Happy Birthday” and “Merry Christmas” could result in jail time. 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 had died and been buried in a Laval, Que., cemetery in 2018 without anyone telling her family. “It took four years to realize that our brother was gone and already buried,” Joan told CBC News. There is no headstone at the grave where the 43-year-old father of three is buried. Only the number 212 spray-painted in orange marks the plot. “Who gives these people permission to do what they’re doing? To bury our brother like this and not contact anyone?” Daniel Saunders, an Inuk man living in Montreal, died in 2018 and was buried, unbeknownst to his family. (Daniel Saunders/Facebook) According to Quebec’s coroner’s office, it’s up to the police officers assigned to the case—in Danny’s case, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM)—to find contact information for the deceased’s family and inform them of the death . While there is a process in Quebec to search for next of kin, the Saunders family said it failed them as they had to learn of their brother’s death through a complete stranger on social media. The family is now demanding answers and accountability from Montreal police and the Quebec government.
He learned of the death through Facebook
The last time any of Saunders’ siblings saw Danny was on November 12, 2017 at his residential unit in Montreal’s Saint-Léonard district, where he was living as part of a social reintegration program and supported by a social worker. His family, consisting of 14 siblings, is originally from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, and part of the Inuit community in the Nunatsiavut region. Some of the brothers, several who now live in Dryden, Ont., came to see Danny for a visit. After that, he fell off the grid. “It was the way Danny was, that’s how we grew up,” said Tim Saunders, Danny’s older brother. But sometime last week, a sibling of Saunders’ who still lives in Labrador received a message on Facebook from a neighbor of Danny’s who said it had been a while since she’d seen him and after doing some digging, discovered he had died four years ago. There is no headstone marking the grave where Danny is buried in Laval Cemetery. Only the number 212 spray-painted in orange marks the plot. (Chloë Ranaldi/CBC News) Worried, the family did their own research. A call between Joan’s daughter and the Quebec coroner confirmed Danny’s death, which is believed to have occurred on March 1, 2018. He was buried nearly three months later. “I found out that my brother was no longer here on earth through social media, and that’s really bad,” Tim said. According to the coroner’s inquest into the man’s death, Dani’s social worker, smelling a foul odor outside his apartment during a visit on March 14, 2018, asked a doorman to escort her to his unit. Through the patio door, they saw the man, slumped dead on his bed. The report concluded that Danny died of coronary heart disease, due to poorly controlled diabetes and severe obesity. He did not appear to be using alcohol or drugs.
Police made “no effort” to find them, the family claims
The Sanders family says it shouldn’t have been so hard to find them. All 14 siblings share the same mother and father, so many share the same last name. “All they had to do was even look on Facebook and find his Facebook page. They could have found me. They could have found most of our siblings that way,” Elizabeth said Adams, Danny’s older sister, whose last name is “Saunders Adams” on Facebook. Danny’s jail and court records could also lead police to the family, says Joan, who lives in Montreal. She says the police knew exactly where to find her because whenever she was looking for Danny when he was in trouble, they came to her house. WATCHES | Danny Saunders’ sister says her family needs closure and responds:
The family wants to know why they were not informed of the brother’s death, burial 4 years ago
Danny Saunders’ sister, Elizabeth Adams, says her family needs closure and answers after recently learning their brother has been dead and buried since 2018, without any family notification. “He wasn’t in trouble this time because he was dead. How come they didn’t knock on the door?” he said. “They didn’t care enough, the police or the social worker, to get in touch [the] family. He had a lot of family and friends.” The Saunders brothers say it’s unacceptable that they haven’t been contacted in this age of technology. They accuse the SPVM of not doing its job. “It seems that no effort was made, nothing was done to find him [us]said Tim.
Montreal police respond
When asked who decides whether a reasonable effort had been made to find the next of kin, the Quebec coroner’s office said the responsibility rests with the relevant police department. 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 SPVM initially redirected all questions to the government’s Director of Public Policy, or the civil situation secretary — the agency responsible for to record births, marriages and deaths. Finally, the agency said that SPVM investigators dedicated to such cases “inform the family about the death when it is possible to reach them.” “Unfortunately, all efforts made by the SPVM to locate members of Mr. Saunders’ family have been unsuccessful,” she said in an emailed statement. The agency did not comment further on Danny’s case. In a situation where no family member can be found by the police, the coroner’s office publishes the name of the deceased on “Unclaimed Bodies” section of its website for at least 30 days, to give the family a chance to come forward, the coroner’s office said in a statement. After 30 or more days pass without a family member appearing, the body is buried at the coroner’s expense. Danny’s name was added to the list on April 20, 2018 — more than a month after his death. He was buried on 31 May. 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 came forward.
“The system is failing the natives,” the brother says
Danny’s siblings say they can only believe their brother’s death was taken seriously because he is Inuk and had a criminal record. They believe that such a thing would never have happened to a non-native family. “They didn’t care because he was a so-called criminal and because he was Aboriginal. They didn’t talk to him,” Joan said through tears. Inside the Every Child Matters movement, Elizabeth wonders how in 2022 this can still happen. “We need closure, we need answers … my brother’s life matters too,” she said. The family is calling on the Quebec government to pay for their brother’s exhumation, as well as his repatriation to Happy Valley-Goose Bay so he can be buried next to his parents, where his three daughters can visit him. Danny, pictured with one of his three daughters, Blaise. His family is demanding that the Quebec government pay for his body to be exhumed so he can be laid to rest at his home in Labrador, next to his parents and where his family can visit him. (Submitted by Tim Saunders) Until then, they say they can only hope they are the last in a line of Native families to go through it. In February, an Aboriginal woman named Tara Niptanatiak died and was buried in Calgary the following month, unbeknownst to her family at the time in Nunavut’s Cambridge Bay. In December, a similar situation happened to another Indigenous woman named Courtney Wheeler, again in Calgary. “The system is failing Indigenous peoples of Canada and [it] failed my brother big, big time,” said Tim, looking towards the insignificant grave his brother lay beneath. “I will never, ever forgive them.”
