Canadian citizen Medhat Tanious was travelling on his Egyptian passport when EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, 2016.
Scores of mourners gathered Monday in an east-end Toronto Coptic church for the funeral service of Medhat Tanious, the second Canadian identified as a victim of the EgyptAir Flight 804 crash.
"It's a hard time for us to believe what happened but we are here in church comforted and consoled by the Holy Spirit," Mr. Tanious's family said in a statement read by a priest during the evening service.
The family also thanked people who had come to the absent funeral service at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Toronto, including representatives of the airline, telling them that "we feel that we are one body in Christ."
While Mr. Tanious was travelling on his Egyptian passport when the Paris-to-Cairo flight crashed into the Mediterranean Thursday, he also has Canadian citizenship, an acquaintance confirmed.
Mr. Tanious was the father of three adult daughters.
"I miss you and I love you beyond words. Keep that smile that went from ear to ear and that gold heart that didn't have one drop of hate," one daughter wrote on her Facebook page.
The family belongs to the Coptic community, the historic Christian church that predates the Muslim conquest of Egypt.
The other Canadian who died in the flight was Saskatoon-born Marwa Hamdy, a projects manager for IBM and mother of three young boys.
She was returning to her home in Cairo after visiting her sister, Noha, who is married to Hesham El Mekwad, a high-ranking diplomat at the Egyptian embassy in Paris.
Tu Thanh Ha