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Family of Syrian immigrants mourn for father killed by falling bricks in Parc-Ex

On Nov. 1, howling winds blew down trees and knocked out power all over southern Quebec.

And in Parc-Extension, those winds dislodged bricks from the façade of a building, killing a man in his 50s who had just missed his bus and was standing near a bus shelter, waiting for his daughter to come pick him up.

The man was Hanri Sabbagh, a Syrian immigrant who had arrived in Canada with his family just last year.

Originally from Aleppo, Sabbagh came to Montreal to start a new life with his wife, Rima Bidan, and their two grown daughters.

"We wanted to reunite and live as a family again, in a safe place, in a nice place," said Bidan.

Valeria Cori-Manocchio/CBC
Valeria Cori-Manocchio/CBC

She described her husband as a very positive person.

He started taking French lessons as soon as they arrived in Montreal. He encouraged his family to explore their new home and its culture, taking them to visit Mont-Tremblant and to a sugar shack.

"He loved this country. For him, the future of the girls was safe and was better than any other place," said Bidan.

Mathieu Daniel Wagner/Radio-Canada
Mathieu Daniel Wagner/Radio-Canada

Bidan said she and her daughters have been inundated by messages of sympathy from her husband's fellow students in French-language class.

At such a difficult time, she said, she and her daughters have been touched to hear stories of her husband's kindness and good humour from people they'd only just come to know.

Mirelle Sabbagh, Hanri's younger daughter, said she thinks of her father as a friend as well as a parent, recalling "how lovely and how funny he was."

Submitted by Rima Bidan
Submitted by Rima Bidan

"I know I will go on, and life will go on, but I won't be the same. No one will be the same. We're broken, even in our happiest moments in the future, there will be pain because he's not here," she said.

Building awaits repairs

The wind ripped several rows of bricks from the façade just below the roofline of the building at the corner of Saint-Roch Street and Champagneur Avenue. People living in the building were temporarily evacuated.

As of Monday, 10 days after the incident, the intersection was still closed to all traffic.

The borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension told CBC that it's checking the area daily, and the building owner is making the necessary repairs.

In the meantime, Sabbagh's family is considering legal action — and trying to fathom how to move forward.

"It's really a strange accident — to suffer all these things in our country and in Dubai, and to come here to the safest and nicest place in the world and to die like this — it's not easy," lamented Bidan. "I don't think we can recover."

The family heads back to Syria Tuesday, to bring Sabbagh's body back to the place of his birth.

Submitted by Rima Bidan
Submitted by Rima Bidan