A memorial service was held Wednesday evening for nine agricultural workers from Peru who were killed last week in a horrific crash in southwestern Ontario.
Nine hearses made their way through the streets of Kitchener, Ont., before arriving at St. Anthony Daniel Catholic church. The victims' extended families and friends hugged one another and cried as they arrived for the service.
"We're talking about salt of the earth people, people who work with their hands, poor people who wanted to make life better for their families," Rev. Earl Talbot told CTV News.
"There are people who are sometimes overlooked, and yet they make the world go ‘round."
The men's bodies will be flown to Peru this weekend, where grieving wives, children, parents and siblings await.
The men had been working at a nearby poultry farm. Some of them had just arrived in Canada.
They were among the 11 killed when a passenger van collided with a flatbed truck at an intersection in the tiny hamlet of Hampstead, Ont. Only three people survived, and are recovering from their injuries in hospital.
The other two men killed have already been buried.
Juan Castillo, a long-time Kitchener resident originally from Nicaragua, was buried in the city on Monday. A service for the truck driver, Christopher Fulton of London, was held over the weekend in his hometown.
Ontario Provincial Police investigators have said the driver of the van did not brake at a stop sign and failed to yield to traffic that had the right of way. They also said the driver held a valid Ontario driver's licence, but did not have the required Class F licence to operate the type of van involved in the crash.
