Canada’s biggest cemetery has been closed for 5 months. Families are now calling on the province to intervene

More than 250 bodies have gone unburied this year at a Montreal cemetery as a result of a labour standoff, with the remains stored at freezing temperature in an on-site repository.

MONTREAL — Bereaved families called on Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault on Mother’s Day Sunday to get involved in a labour dispute that has kept Canada’s biggest cemetery closed for five months.

The wrought-iron gates of Montreal’s Notre-Dames-des-Neiges Cemetery have been shut to the public since mid-January due to a strike by operations and maintenance workers, with the exception of a few days in late March and early April.

More than 250 bodies have gone unburied this year as a result of the labour standoff, with the remains stored at freezing temperatures in an on-site repository, said cemetery spokesman Daniel Granger.

“We just can’t at this time, with the limited number of people we have on site now, do burials on the grounds,” he said in a phone interview.

Jimmy Koliakoudakis, whose mother died in February, called the situation “inhumane” and “lacking dignity” as he held flowers outside the graveyard.

“I can’t even go and leave them at my mother’s resting place because she doesn’t have one; she’s in a freezer. We’re asking the government to step in,” he said. “We’re suffering.”

A mediator from the provincial government is expected to propose a compromise in the coming days — a step that Labour Minister Jean Boulet has pointed to as part of its efforts to resolve the dispute — said Paul Caghassi, who speaks for a group representing the families.

Sprawling across Mount Royal’s north side, the Notre-Dames-des-Neiges Cemetery opened for six hours on Mother’s Day, though many areas remained off limits due to fallen branches or precarious tree limbs in the wake of an ice storm last month. Red caution tape reading “Danger” blocked off roads and paths.