Saturday, January 16, 2010 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
The frantic hunt for survivors in the Port-au-Prince rubble is becoming a recovery of corpses – with close to 1,500 Canadians among the missing.
A hotline set up on the night of the earthquake has gotten calls from the anxious family members of 1,415 Canadians, all of whom are now registered as unaccounted for. Amid the chaos of emergency recovery their fate is unclear. But that staggering figure hints at this disaster’s unprecedented potential human toll for Canada, which for decades has demonstrated a special affinity for Haiti. More than 150,000 Canadians trace their roots to the crisis-racked country, which is second only to Afghanistan in the amount of Canadian aid it receives. Officials believe that at least 50,000 people perished in the earthquake.
The Department of Foreign Affairs says reconnaissance missions are under way and officials are in frequent touch with the families of the missing.
But even as aid begins to pour in, time is running out for those trapped by the quake.
a business of misfits 