TORONTO -- A funeral home in Brampton has been temporarily shut down after it allegedly allowed more than 60 people to gather indoors, despite COVID-19 limits on gatherings.
The Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) has temporarily suspended the licence of Brampton Crematorium and Visitation Centre and the licence of the manager in charge, Puneet Singh Aujla.
On Feb. 27, while Peel Region was under a stay-at-home under, the BAO says they were informed about a gathering of 60-plus people at the centre.
Funeral services in Peel were restricted to only 10 attendees at the time.
The BAO says the centre was therefore failing to comply with public health directives to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“We monitor the internet and social media, and receive information from various sources of the potential for contravention of provincial government restrictions and BAO directives,” a spokesperson for the BAO says in a statement to CP24.
“The licensed operator in this instance was observed by the BAO’s inspection staff to be not following directives set by the provincial government and the BAO.”
The centre also failed to comply with other unspecified conditions of licensure, according to the BAO.
Starting on Monday, the centre and Aujla will not be allowed to operate for 15 days.
“The two-week suspension starts on March 15 to allow the funeral home to stop accepting future scheduled services during the suspension period and to ensure that no family is suddenly cut off from their pre-existing funeral services as planned,” the statement reads.
The suspension of licences is the first issued across the province by the BAO since the pandemic started a year ago.
The provincial agency stressed the need for funeral homes to comply with COVID-19 health protocols for the safety of everyone in those settings.
“Funerals are a high-risk event during the pandemic with people crying, consoling each other, tissues. It’s hard to maintain distancing rules in a funeral service as it is unique from any other gathering,” the spokesperson says.
On Monday, Peel region entered the grey lockdown level of the province’s tiered COVID-19 response framework. This means that funeral services are still limited to 10 people indoors and 10 people outdoors.
