Families of Manitoba bus crash victims say fundraiser 'piggybacked' off of their trauma
CBC
The families of survivors and victims of a bus crash that killed 17 seniors last summer are speaking out against a fundraiser set up shortly after the accident, saying it misled people into thinking it would help those who were actually impacted by it.
The Dauphin & District Community Foundation set up the Support our Seniors Fund about a week after the accident near Carberry, Man., on June 15.
In a social media post, the organization asked for tax-deductible donations "in honour of the victims from the motor vehicle accident."
The caption said the Parkland region was still reeling from the incident and that the money raised would go toward seniors programming in the community. But none of the donations will directly go to any of the survivors, nor the victims' families.
Adrienne Zurba and Valerie Owen say none of the families nor the survivors of the accident were consulted.
Their mother, Claudia Zurba, was killed in the crash. She was 87.
"What right does this foundation have to come in on this and do this? This makes no sense," Adrienne Zurba said.
"[People] did think that they were trying to help their friends, their neighbours, looking to help because that's what people want to do: They want to reach out and help. So by the foundation mimicking that they were helping people in the community.… They're totally, totally misconstruing things and confusing the public."
Zurba said the organization "piggybacked" off of people's trauma to benefit their fund.
Owen said those who survived the crash could have used some of that assistance, or that the organization could have raised money for something the victims found personally meaningful to honour them.
"Our mother loved to sing and she belonged to the church choir and she belonged to the Ukrainian festival choir as well, in Dauphin," she said.
"If people knew that there was other things that they could donate to in memory of those who didn't survive the crash, it would have been nice to have been able to, if the foundation wanted to, organize that."
The Dauphin & District Community Foundation's board of directors said in a statement Friday it created the fund after being approached by the City of Dauphin immediately after the crash.
"The city believed the community foundation was the most effective mechanism to be able to respond quickly to these requests and support the community," the statement said, adding that Canada Revenue Agency regulations do not allow community foundations to give grants to families or individuals.
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