BETIANA MUBILI IS GOING HOME
Father abandons battle over burial
The body of Canadian Forces medic Betiana “Betty” Mubili is on its way back to her homeland in Africa, bringing an end to a bitter court battle over the young woman’s remains.
For nearly two months, since the 29-year-old Mubili was killed in a recreational skydiving mishap in Petawawa on Aug. 27, her father, Viktor Mubili, has been fighting to have his daughter buried in her adopted country of Canada.
That won’t happen now, after the elder Mubili, weary of having his daughter’s body lying unceremoniously for weeks in a Toronto storage freezer, withdrew a court injunction blocking the transfer of the remains to her native Zambia.
“She is a Canadian citizen, she fought for Canada, she is a Canadian war veteran, and to send her back to be buried in a foreign country is not right,” he said. “She would want to be buried among her comrades.”
But others close to Mubili dispute her father’s assertion.
Andre Johnson, a former military member-turned-paralegal, said he helped Mubili through a difficult period after she allegedly suffered harassment and racial discrimination in 2010 while working as a Canadian Forces medical technician.
Johnson provided a copy of the official complaint he said Mubili lodged with the Canadian Forces following years of alleged discrimination.
“This severe and intentional discrimination that Ms. Mubili has continued to encounter at her workplace has left her with no other recourse but to seek help from (an) outside source, as her entire chain has participated at different times and could not be relied upon to resolve this important and life-impacting issue,” the complaint reads.
The Department of National Defence did not confirm or comment on the complaint, citing privacy restrictions.
“However, we do treat such matters seriously and with sensitivity. The Department and the Canadian Armed Forces do not tolerate discrimination,” said spokesman Derek Abma in a statement.
“Any individual who feels discriminated against has a range of options as to how to raise the issue. Likewise, the individual’s chain of command has recourse to a number of measures to stop and remediate discriminatory practices including disciplinary or administrative actions.”
According to Johnson, “I know for certain Betiana had no desire to be buried among her fellow soldiers.”
Before Mubili was deployed to Afghanistan, where she served a year-long tour in 2012, she named her pastor, Paul Martin, as her estate trustee.
Mubili emigrated to Canada in 2002 to join her father in Mississauga, where she developed a close connection to Martin’s Grace Fellowship Church, where more than 100 mourners gathered for a service in the days following her death.
According to Viktor Mubili, he and his daughter had “fallen out, and I knew they had a good relationship.”
He met Martin for breakfast two days after Betty’s death, where Mubili said he gave the pastor his blessing to carry out the wishes of his daughter’s estate.
“I said, ‘It’s OK, I can trust you, my daughter trusted you,’” he said. “I believed he would do the right thing.”
Mubili, who works in Timmins in the mining industry, said that when he flew to Toronto in early September to identify Betty’s remains, he was shocked to learn his daughter’s body was already in the possession of a shipping company, readying the transfer of her body for burial in Zambia.
According to Mubili, Betty’s Zambian aunt and three half-sisters were fighting to have the body buried in her homeland.
He immediately sought a court injunction and retained a lawyer, but gave up the court challenge after several weeks of legal wrangling.
“In my tradition and culture, it is frowned upon to keep the body unburied for too long, and I realized as a parent … I decided to remove this legal obstacle so that maybe that would enable (Martin) to reflect and think this through,” Mubili said.
Martin did not respond to the Citizen’s requests for comment.
His Toronto-based lawyer, Paul Trudelle, said in an email that Viktor Mubili “consented to an order that provided that the estate trustee (Martin) is at liberty to dispose of the remains without restriction. … It is my understanding that the matter is fully resolved.”
Mubili said he does not consider the matter resolved.
Mubili said he has still not heard back from the coroner’s office, which according to Mubili was still investigating the cause of his daughter’s death. She plunged to the earth from an altitude of 10,000 feet during a solo recreational dive.
Before she died, Mubili was about to transfer back to Toronto from Garrison Petawawa to continue her nursing training. She had recently been promoted and was on her way to becoming a commissioned officer, a Garrison Petawawa spokesperson confirmed.
Mubili said he received only a preliminary report, delivered verbally early in the investigation by an OPP officer, who told him police were investigating the possibility an equipment malfunction contributed to her death.
Since conceding the court battle, Mubili says, Martin, the pastor, and his daughter’s remaining family in Zambia have cut off contact with him.
He isn’t sure exactly where or when his daughter’s remains will be interred.
“They’ve kept me in the dark,” said Mubili, who said he won’t be travelling to Zambia for the service, but instead sent a speech to be read by his brother.
“I was very opposed to the body going to Zambia,” said Mubili. “And I believe the Zambian government would not allow a Canadian citizen and military officer to be buried in Zambia.”