OTTAWA - After being held in Cuba for almost three months, Cody LeCompte's unwilling vacation is almost over.
The 19-year-old from Simcoe, Ont., has been unable to leave Cuba since a car accident in late April.
Cuban police have now agreed to let his family post bail for 2,000 Cuban pesos or about C$100, on the condition that he return to Cuba for a trial.
Reached by phone at the seaside resort where he has been staying, LeCompte said he is "very relieved" about the decision.
"As long as I can go home and see my family, then I can just worry about (the trial) later," he said.
Before allowing LeCompte to return to Canada, Cuban officials are waiting for a statement from the driver of the truck involved in the car accident. The Cuban government must also officially take the block off LeCompte's passport.
LeCompte says he is hoping to return home with his mother, Danette LeCompte, as early as Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Peter Kent said Cody LeCompte's case had been brought up in a meeting with Cuba's representative in Canada.
Kent said in his release that the Cuban official was told delays in cases such as LeCompte's could affect the choices made by Canadians considering Cuba as a tourist destination.
Three days into their vacation in early May, Cody and Danette went for a day trip to a nearby village with Danette's cousin and his Cuban fiancee.
As they passed through an intersection, a dump truck slammed into the passenger side of the car. The car spun around and was struck again on the driver's side where Cody sat, said his mother.
Police did not show up at the crash site, but came to the hospital later to question them.
Everyone in the car suffered internal bruising, but were eventually released from hospital. The cousin's fiancee was severely injured and needed an operation to remove part of her liver. She has since fully recovered.
The driver of the dump truck was not injured.
Danette LeCompte was later told 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.
A few days later they tried to catch a flight home, but Cody was told that he could not leave the country.
The ordeal has cost the family more than $25,000.
Last week Liberal MP Bob Rae was critical of the way Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon had handled LeCompte's case, saying that "more vigorous representation" was needed.
Cannon's assistant, Darryl Whitehead, said Foreign Affairs was doing everything it could to help get Cody LeCompte home as soon as possible.
Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, met with senior Cuban officials and raised LeCompte's case directly at the recent African Union Summit in Uganda.
The advisory says accidents are a frequent cause of arrest and detention of Canadians in Cuba, and accidents resulting in death or injury are treated as crimes.
The onus is on the driver to prove innocence.
LeCompte must return to Cuba for trial, which will determine if he faces any charges for the accident. If he is convicted, the family has been told he could face time in a Cuban prison.
