Families whose prepaid funeral funds vanished still waiting for answers

Families whose prepaid funeral money vanished say they're frustrated with how long it's taking to get answers about how and when they'll get that money back.

More than a dozen alleged victims of Lowell Oakes, who formerly owned Dawson Funeral Home in Crapaud, were in provincial court Wednesday.

The funeral home closed last year after hundreds of thousands of dollars of clients' money disappeared.

Money to fund dozens of prepaid funeralswas supposed to be held in trust by Dawson Funeral Home Ltd.

But owner Lowell Oakes is now facing66 fraud chargeswhich are still being dealt with incriminal court, as well as a number of claims in small claims court.

His funeral home licence was revoked in March 2022, and he was also fined $10,000 at that time.

Oakes was not present in the courtroom Wednesdayand his lawyer requested an adjournment.

Judge Nancy Orr said the matter has been before the court for quite some time and this was the sixth court date Oakes has had since last October.

"It's time for this matter to move forward in one way or another," Orr said.

Oakes's case was adjourned until next month. The charges against Oakes have not been tested in court.

'Very disappointed'

Peter Norring was among those in the courtroom he's advocating for his mother-in-law. He said the group came to court hoping to see the matter move forward.

"We weren't surprised but we were all very disappointed," he said.

The group gathered outside the courthouse to voice their frustration with how long it's taking for the matter to move through the court.

'There's just no words'

For Susan MacKay, waiting has been painful.

She said her mother-in-law whospent $10,000 on a prepaid funeral from Dawson's funeral homedied last year.

"My husband and I are her only family, so myhusband and I had to take money from our personal retirement savings to pay for her funeral," MacKay said.

"There's just no words to describe how we've been feeling. Dealing with grief on top of this, it's just been very difficult."

Jackie Molyneaux said the group would like to see the government to step in to help the people who've lost money and put more legislative safeguards in place to stop something like this from happening to others.

"Many of these people are seniors, they can't afford to pay for their funerals again. They're on pensions and they worked really hard to try to save enough money so that their loved ones didn't have to pay for them," she said.

"We're not asking for anything more than to help retrievethe money that was lost."

A spokesperson for the province told CBC there would be no further comment as the matter is before the court.

Oakes is set to return to provincial court on March 20.