By Cory Ruf, Postmedia News August 6, 2010
An elated Cody LeCompte speaks to media outside Toronto's Pearson
International Airport, Friday evening. The 19-year-old from Simcoe,
Ontario was held in Cuba for almost three months following a car
accident, when the rental car he was driving was sideswiped by a pickup
truck. Cuban law states that drivers must be 21 to rent a car, but the
rental agency allowed her son to drive even though his licence showed
him to be 19.
Photograph by: Aaron Lynett, National Post
TORONTO — Cody LeCompte, the 19-year-old Simcoe, Ont., man whose
three-month stay in Cuba was more purgatory than paradise, was back on
home soil Friday.
"I just can't stress how great it feels to be back," said LeCompte, who
had been stranded in the island nation since April, when he was involved
in a car crash. Cuban authorities had refused to allow him to leave the
country pending an investigation into the accident.
Tanned and wearing a black shirt, he told reporters: "The whole time I
just wanted to get back home. But I'm back now."
The jet carrying him, his mother Danette, and uncle Gary Parmenter
touched down at Toronto's Pearson International Airport at around 7:30
p.m. ET.
Over two-dozen family members and friends, some of whom gripped Canadian
flags and "Welcome Home Cody" signs, waited anxiously in the reception
area for the trio to emerge.
"I can't tell you what I've been feeling," said Velda Parmenter,
LeCompte's aunt, of his return to Canada. "We've been just been on a
high all day."
About 45 minutes later, Stephen Parmenter, LeCompte's cousin, received a
text message from his father, Gary, indicating airport security was
whisking LeCompte out of the airport through a side exit.
The crowd rushed outside to greet LeCompte, who hugged family members
and friends and then kissed the ground in front of the terminal in a
display of his joy to be home, no longer in legal limbo in a foreign
country.
On April 29 — three days into a two-week sojourn with his mother to
celebrate his acceptance to Sault College's aviation program — a dump
truck rammed the rental car he was driving. Local authorities barred him
from leaving his resort in Santa Lucia while the investigation was
underway and told him he could face up to three years in prison.
Late last month, authorities told the teen he would be allowed to leave
Cuba after he posted bail of 2,000 pesos — $100 — and signed documents
promising to return to the country to stand trial should charges be laid.
LeCompte had expected to fly back to Canada on Tuesday, but was shocked
to learn there was still a block on his passport. After he was notified
the restrictions would finally be lifted, his family booked seats for
Friday — the next available flight home.
"I really had my hopes up and then they were shot back down," he said of
his ordeal.
The collision left him with a broken hand and possible cracked ribs and
a fractured collarbone, none of which have received proper medical
attention. His left hand still showed wounds he sustained during the
crash, and he favoured it when he bent down to kiss the ground at Pearson.
He said, in Cuba, he received 30 stitches without anesthesia, and he
hopes to see a Canadian doctor "as soon as possible."
Despite the injuries, he didn't seem to be in pain, speaking calmly and
obviously happy to be home.
While talking to reporters, his grandparents hugged him and at another
point a supporter draped a Canadian flag over his back.
LeCompte's ordeal attracted Canada-wide media attention and a "Bring
Cody LeCompte Home" Facebook page has garnered over 3,700 followers.
His family credits the media and the public for pressuring the federal
government to demand the teen's release.
"The press is the reason we're here," his mother said.
Peter Kent, minister of state for international affairs (Americas), has
said he told Cuban officials that holding LeCompte indefinitely would
reflect poorly on the republic and discourage Canadian tourists from
vacationing there.
LeCompte's family has spent over $30,000 on legal fees and accommodation
since the April incident.
Though he hopes never to go back to Cuba, LeCompte said, "I can't say
anything bad about the country. They have laws that might not make sense
to me, but that's just the way it is."
As the sun set, a black stretch limo waited to take LeCompte and his
family back to Simcoe.
He said he hoped to make a pit stop to grab a special meal he couldn't
get in Cuba.
"I'm going to Harvey's," he said.
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