How do we repatriate a body from Israel to Canada, and will Canada issue a death certificate?

The question Canadian families ask second, after the flight, is where the Canadian death certificate comes from. There isn't one. Canada does not register a death that occurred outside its borders, so the teudat petira issued in Israel remains the only certificate in existence, and it will still be the operative document years later when a Toronto branch of RBC asks for proof of death.

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Detailed Answer

Israeli export runs through the Ministry of Health, which issues the permit to remove a body from the country, and the casket must comply with the Public Health (re-interment) Rules 1941: hermetically sealed and metal-lined, in practice a soldered zinc liner inside a wooden shell. The Israeli death certificate comes from the Population and Immigration Authority at the Ministry of Interior, and it is that certificate, not the hospital's notification, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostilles. Where the death was sudden, violent or of unknown cause, the file can pause for a post-mortem, and Section 6A of the Anatomy and Pathology Law 5713-1953 controls who may object: with a surviving family, no autopsy proceeds under Section 6 without the consent of the spouse, failing whom the children, then the parents, then a sibling. Consent the deceased gave in their own lifetime overrides a later family objection, which is the provision that catches families out most often. The wider Israeli mechanics, including what a licensed agent actually does at Ben Gurion, are set out in our guide to repatriating a body from Israel.

One Israeli practice collides with Canadian expectations. Canadian funeral directors and most airlines routinely ask for an embalming certificate, and Israel does not embalm, because embalming conflicts with halachic burial preparation. The answer is the sealed metal-lined casket, which satisfies the alternative limb of the requirement, but the Canadian receiving home has to be told this in advance or it will keep asking for a certificate that will never exist. From Vancouver or Montreal the practical sequence is to appoint the Canadian funeral home first and let it deal with the provincial burial and transit permit and the Canada Border Services Agency clearance at the port of entry, while an Israeli agent works the Ministry of Health permit in parallel. The consular section of the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv will help locate the remains, contact the police or hospital and cancel the Canadian passport, and it is explicit that all costs of a death abroad and of repatriation fall on the family regardless of the cause of death. Provincial health insurance does not travel, and a travel insurance policy is usually the only source of repatriation cover. If the death certificate is not in English or French, Canada requires a certified translation, so order the notarial translation in Israel at the same time as the apostille rather than discovering the gap at a probate registry in Ontario.

In Practice: The Ministry of Health export permit and a sealed metal-lined casket under the Public Health (re-interment) Rules 1941 are the two Israeli conditions, and a clean file clears in five to seven business days from issue of the death certificate. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostille costs about NIS 41 and is generally same-day in Jerusalem, with the notarial translation adding NIS 251 for the first 100 words and NIS 197 for each further 100. Because Section 266 of the National Insurance Law [Consolidated Version] 1995 funds burial in Israel and nothing else, the National Insurance Institute contributes nothing toward flying a body out, and families should budget the full air cargo, agent and casket cost themselves.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The deceased owned an Israeli apartment, bank account or pension as well as Canadian assets. Repatriation and succession run on separate tracks, and the Israeli succession order under Section 66 of the Succession Law 1965 takes three to six months, so the estate work should start while the funeral is still being arranged.
• The family is split over burial in Israel or in Canada. Once the Ministry of Health permit is issued and the casket is sealed the decision is effectively made, and reversing it means an application in Israel rather than a conversation with the funeral home.
• A post-mortem has been ordered and a relative wants to stop it. The Section 6A hierarchy is rigid, objections must reach the pathology institute quickly, and a family member in Canada needs Israeli representation to file rather than a phone call.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We coordinate the Ministry of Health permit, the apostilled death certificate and the certified translation, and hand your Canadian funeral director a document set that clears CBSA without a second round of requests.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.