Health Canada says dozens of body bags shipped to Manitoba Aboriginal reserves in flu preparedness kits were part of "routine restocking" of supplies.
Jim Wolfe, regional director with the First Nations and Inuit health branch, said the bags were meant to be used over the winter for death by all causes, and were not "linked exclusively to H1N1."
The body bags were in a shipment of hand sanitizers and face masks that Health Canada sent to reserves that were hit by H1N1 flu last spring.
"We really regret the alarm this incident has caused and it was unintended," Wolfe said.
"We order these supplies as a matter of routine business and ... this was part of a very normal restocking process."
Meanwhile, MPs are demanding an apology from Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
"What message does it send....when the government won't send medicine but they will send body bags," said Liberal Aboriginal Affairs critic Todd Russell, demanding an apology from Aglukkaq.
She was in Winnipeg during question period, but Transport Minister John Baird said the incident was "unacceptable" and "inexcusable."
Aglukkaq pledged to get to the bottom of the matter and make public the results of a departmental investigation.
Aglukkaq, an Inuit from Nunavut, says she found the action "insensitive and offensive."
She added that anyone suggesting Ottawa's answer to swine flu is to send out body bags is "sensationalizing this situation."
Earlier in the morning, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff called for an apology from the health minister, saying the body bags send the message that Ottawa is not expecting aboriginals to fare well with the flu.
"It simply says: 'We expect aboriginal Canadians to die," he told reporters outside the House of Commons.
Saskatchewan Senator Lillian Dyck, herself an aboriginal, said she was in a "state of shock" after hearing of the body bag shipments.
"It's like someone had taken a knife and driven it into my heart as a woman. How would you feel if you were worried about being infected with H1N1 and what you were sent was a body bag indicating that your family was going to die?" she said as she stood alongside Ignatieff.
"We need preventative measures, not body bags."
Grand Chief David Harper, who represents Manitoba's northern First Nations, says the body bags are insulting to his people, particularly since death is "a very sensitive issue" in his culture. Aboriginals never actively prepare for death, since they believe that there is always hope of recovery, he says.
"It is not Man's decision to prepare for death. It is up to the great spirit, it is up to the Lord, who has that decision-making power," Harper told 麻豆影视 Channel.
Harper added that he wants an apology from Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq.
"That really hurt the aboriginal community and we don't accept anything less than an apology from the minister," he said, noting he has sent a letter to Aglukkaq's office requesting a meeting.
Aglukkaq said at a flu briefing in Ottawa Wednesday that she only found out about the body bag shipments just ahead of the press conference and said she was disturbed by the move.
She said she has asked her deputy minister to look into how the body bags ended up in the shipment.
But Ignatieff says Aglukkaq cannot blame the mix up on bureaucrats and has to take responsibility.
"We feel that the minister has been sending out her bureaucrats when what's required is a simple, frank and human apology to Canadians," he said.
With files from the Canadian Press
