A British Columbia man died Wednesday in an Australian hospital, the first confirmed Canadian fatality of the Bali nightclub blasts earlier this month.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday that Richard Gleason would be cremated in Australia and his ashes returned to Canada. A subsequent memorial service is planned for Whitehorse.

Mr. Gleason is one of four Canadians wounded in the explosions at Kuta Beach, Bali, which claimed close to 200 lives, the majority of them tourists. Another Canadian, Saskatchewan native Merv Popadynec, is missing and believed dead.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said that dental records for Mr. Popadynec have been sent to Indonesia and that the body believed to be his will be compared with those records in the next few days.

Attributed to Muslim terrorists, the Bali bombings shocked neighbouring Australia, which views the tropical paradise as a favourite destination for sun and surf. More than half the victims were Australians.

Grievously wounded in the attack, Mr. Gleason was airlifted to Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He suffered third-degree burns to almost half of his body. He was also cut on the neck, losing a significant amount of blood, and his lungs and spleen were injured.

His parents flew to be with him and were at his bedside when he died. They issued a statement Wednesday thanking the the "doctors, nurses and allied health and other supporting staff" at the hospital.

Mr. Gleason had been vacationing for two weeks when the bombing occurred. He had intended to go to Mexico before a cheap flight caused him to make a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Bali.