National Post (National Edition)
Missing since 2012, Canadian home at last
Had record of mental health problems
VANCOUVER • A Toronto resident who disappeared in 2012 has been reunited with family in Canada after he was found walking along a highway in Brazil with no passport and no shoes.
Anton Pilipa is back in Toronto, following a brief hospitalization in Manaus, Brazil, where he was taken after state police found him in late November.
The 39-year-old was last seen in Scarborough five years ago, and had been struggling with mental health problems at the time, his brother Stefan told CBC Toronto this week.
“I feel amazed that he’s alive and had made it that far,” Stefan said of his brother’s re-appearance nearly 10,500 kilometres away from where he was last seen. The pair of brothers flew back to Toronto on Monday.
Anton lived in B.C. during the late 1990s and 2000s. While in Vancouver, Anton had been a key member of the Anti-Poverty Committee and had a long history of activism in the city, dating back to 1999. That year, he was among a number of people arrested for occupying the offices of then NDP Premier Glen Clark.
In the years leading up to his disappearance, Anton’s family had tried to get him help as he was struggling with mental health. Before they were able to do so, he disappeared.
In late December 2016, Stefan received a phone call notifying him Anton had been found by police without shoes or identification, along a busy highway in northern Brazil.
Anton, who does not speak Portuguese, did not make sense to police and was visibly distraught, police said. A police officer who spoke English was able to learn Anton was a Canadian, and using that bit of information, headed online to try and track down his family.
“He said a couple of things that made sense to someone who has lived in Canada,” wrote Helenice Vidigal, one of the police officers who located Anton in Brazil on Nov. 28, 2016. “For instance, at one point, he asked me if I am a francophone, also asked me to get the RCMP because he would like to be repatriated.
“So I started to see him as a missing Canadian. He refused to talk about his family, but ... there was a family looking for him.”
In her Facebook post, Vidigal goes on to explain the chain of events and how countless people helped to spread word of Anton’s reappearance. Vidigal was able to track down a contact through an old online post searching for Anton following his initial disappearance, and sent a message. In response, a family friend was able to put Brazilian authorities in touch with Anton’s brother Stefan.
“So I guess I was at the right place at the right moment to give a hand to someone in need,” said Vidigal.
At the time he was picked up, Anton had no belongings and his grown-out hair and beard gave him the appearance of a homeless drifter. He was taken to hospital for treatment but left a short time later. Police again found him headed toward a jungle area populated by predatory animals. He was taken back to the hospital, while his brother made plans to travel to Brazil to bring Anton home.
When Stefan arrived in Brazil in late January, he told CBC his brother “looked really rough.”
“His health was starting to deteriorate,” he said. “We got him just in time.”
It’s still unclear how Anton has spent the last five years of his life, though it’s believed he made it to Brazil mostly by walking and hitchhiking.
Anton was somehow able to travel through the United States and Central America without a passport, with the goal of reaching the National Library of Buenos Aires in Argentina, according to the Daily Mail. When he arrived, Anton was told he wouldn’t be admitted without identification and he left.