The Consulate Could Have Done More

Canadian Mom Detained in Cuba After Tot's Death

BY MARY MURRAY

HAVANA – Justine Davis just wants to go home to Toronto to bury her son, but she’s being detained in Cuba as police slowly investigate the traffic accident that claimed the toddler’s life.

The single mother and her 3-year-old son, Cameron, were in Cuba for the Christmas holiday. While riding on a rented scooter together on Dec. 23, Justine swerved to avoid a pothole on a dirt road and crashed into a truck. Both she and her son were thrown from the scooter and the child’s helmet flew off on impact.

Justine suffered multiple injuries and was air-lifted to Havana for surgery. She learned the next day that Cameron had died at the scene. No one in the truck was injured.

COURTESY DAVIS FAMILY / COURTESY DAVIS FAMILY

Justine Davis with her son, Cameron, visiting a turtle farm in Cuba on Dec. 23, 2013, just hours before the scooter accident that claimed his life.

Three days later a Havana hospital cleared Justine to be medevaced to Canada, but Cuban police stopped the 29-year old from leaving the country, despite the fact that she has not been charged with any crime.

Friends say Justine has remained in the hospital with little intervention from Canadian consular officials.

“She is feeling absolute despair,” said her best friend Amber Hussy over the phone from Toronto. “I am worried about her state of mind. She needs to be home with friends and family. She needs closure.”

Friends started a Facebook page and an online petition to “put pressure on the Cuban government to release Justine Davis” in time to attend her son’s funeral services set for this Saturday. The petition has gathered over 9,000 signatures.

On Wednesday, for the first time since the accident, Justine had a visit from a consular officer with the Canadian Embassy in Havana who said that officials were in contact with Cuban authorities.