The Canadian-American aid worker who died in an Israeli army strike last Monday was from the municipality of Saint-Georges, in Beauce. He had just had a son with his partner.
“Jacob was a guy who always found solutions to all problems. He really liked helping people, he was truly passionate. It’s so sad to lose a man like him,” says Jonathan Duguay, Jacob Flickinger’s friend and confidant.
The latter, aged 33, was one of seven aid workers working for World Central Kitchen (WCK), an organization helping the Palestinian people with food supplies in Gaza, who were tragically killed by a strike Israeli air force last Monday.
Mr. Duguay, who is also involved with WCK, will be remembered as a fundamentally positive and good man. “He always had a smile on his face, no matter where we were in the world. He was truly a good person, a good family man, he had his values in the right place.
Veteran of 22e regiment, Mr. Flickinger had a little boy barely 1 year old with his partner Sandy. He had been living with them in Costa Rica for two years. He had previously lived in Saint-Georges, his native village, as well as in the municipality of Stoneham, located very close to Quebec.
“The war has just taken on a new symbol for the citizens of Beauce,” said CAQ deputy for Beauce-Sud, Samuel Poulin, on Wednesday, remembering “a man of heart and courage, present to help civilians and children “. “Words fail us in the face of such horror. War also affects innocent people and humanists,” the MP persisted.
Funds for loved ones
With the father of the deceased, John Flickinger, Jonathan Duguay launched a crowdfunding campaign on Wednesday to support his loved ones. All funds raised will be used to help the family “rebuild” and “to temporarily support themselves, set up a trust fund for their little boy and cover any costs associated with the funeral.”
Shortly after, testimonies paying tribute to Mr. Flickinger began to pour in on social networks on Wednesday. “My son, Jacob, was killed on Monday while delivering food aid to starving families in Gaza. He died doing what he loved and serving others through his work,” his father, John Flickinger, remembered on Facebook.
He is survived by his partner and his young son. Please help if you can as we go through this heartbreaking tragedy.
John Flickinger
In an interview with Radio-Canada, his mother, Sylvia Labrecque, especially wished that her son “had not been killed in vain”. “I really hope that his departure will not go unnoticed. Whether it’s to stop the killing, to stop the violence, whether it’s to return all the hostages to their families. At some point, this damn war has to end somewhere,” she said.
Blogger and host, Pierre Lefebvre, for his part, worked alongside the man as a cameraman during a hunting trip in the Yukon. “Jacob is an example of courage and strength. Exceptional physical fitness and a desire to help others in a heroic way,” Mr. Lefebvre wrote on Wednesday.
“To think that I called you at the end of the week to hear from you. […] Damn war. It was you who influenced my music at the beginning of each of my films,” added Mr. Lefebvre, visibly moved.
Answers required
The bodies of the aid workers arrived in Egypt on Wednesday to be repatriated to their respective countries. It is “a serious error” which “should not have happened”, admitted the chief of the Israeli general staff Herzi Halevi, referring to “a bad identification” in “very complex conditions”.
The day before, Israeli President Isaac Herzog had apologized, his Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referring to a tragic strike. WCK, for its part, announced that it would suspend its activities in the region.
In Canada, government representatives held discussions with the ambassador of the Jewish state in Ottawa regarding the Israeli strike, Justin Trudeau confirmed on Wednesday. “We expressed, as I said, our dismay at the unacceptable deaths of aid workers,” he said.
On the other side of the globe, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his “anger and [sa] concern” to its Israeli counterpart, Poland having announced that it would summon the Israeli ambassador to discuss Israel’s “moral, political and financial responsibility”.
The day before, the United Kingdom had announced that it would summon the Israeli ambassador to express its “unequivocal condemnation” of the Israeli strike. The UN, for its part, denounced a “contempt for international humanitarian law”. US President Joe Biden also expressed outrage, believing that Israel does not sufficiently protect people helping the starving Palestinian population.
With Agence France-Presse and Mélanie Marquis, The Press
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- Since the start of the war, 196 aid workers have been killed, including 175 from the UN, according to its secretary general, António Guterres.