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from Ottawa
Citizen Friday 26 May 2000
Body of Unknown Soldier lies in
state
JOHN WARD
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A Canadian war veteran salutes the casket of the Unknown Soldier as
it lies in state on Parliament Hill in Ottawa May 25. (CP/Tom
Hanson)
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OTTAWA (CP) - A long-lost
son came home Thursday for a national wake and a military funeral.
An Unknown Soldier, buried in
France for more than 80 years, was placed in the Hall of Honour of the
Parliament Buildings, to lie in state until a formal military funeral on
Sunday. Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson and Prime Minister Jean Chretien
placed wreaths of white lilies and red carnations before the coffin as war
veterans looked on with bowed heads.
The soldier rode to Parliament Hill
on a motorized gun carriage, escorted by an honour guard of soldiers and
Mounties slow-marching to the beat of muffled drums.
As the procession entered the
grounds, the Peace Tower bell began a mournful tolling.
Eight pall-bearers - representing
army, navy, air force and RCMP - carried the silver maple coffin into the
hall. An otherwise silent scene was broken by their boot heels resounding
on the marble floor.
They placed him on a shrouded bier
and draped him with a Maple Leaf flag, something he never laid his eyes
on. Officers with reversed swords took positions at each corner of the
coffin, to start a round-the-clock vigil that will run to Sunday.
Brig.-Gen. Murray Farwell, the
chaplain general, asked that the hall be considered a sacred place while
the soldiers lie in state.
"In paying our respects to
Canada's unknown warrior, we are honouring all Canadians who have
sacrificed their lives so that all generations of Canadians can live in
peace," he said.
Following the benediction and after
Chretien and Clarkson paid their respects, the veterans trooped forward.
Old men with white hair and
leathery faces, eyes dimmed by age and shoulders stooped by time, stepped
forward to raise a last salute to an unknown comrade of a long-ago war.
On Sunday, the nameless, homeless,
rankless soldier will be carried to his final resting place in a hand-hewn
tomb of dark Caledonian granite at the foot of the National War Memorial.
Soil from each of the provinces and
territories will be mixed with soil from France and scattered across the
bottom of the sarcophagus. This soldier will lie forever on his native
soil and that of France, where he gave his life.
The tomb will be sealed by a
granite lid, decorated with bronzes by sculptor Mary-Ann Liu and will bear
the simple inscription: The Unknown Soldier, Le Soldat Inconnu.
The remains were turned over to the
Canadian military earlier Thursday in France in a solemn ceremony beneath
the twin-towered Vimy Memorial dedicated to 66,000 Canadians who gave
their lives in the First World War.
All told, more than 110,000
Canadians have perished in conflicts through the country's history.
"Today is a solemn and moving
moment in the history of our country," Defence Minister Art Eggleton
said after the flag-shrouded coffin was carried from a grey military
Airbus that brought it across the Atlantic.
Eggleton said the soldier
"will forever represent the Canadian sacrifice for the restoration of
peace and the defence of freedom in the past, the present and the
future."
The soldier symbolizes 27,000
comrades who have no known graves, said Eggleton.
"Although we know who they
are, we know not where they lie."
Since his death in the First World
War, the soldier had lain beneath a headstone marked with a Maple Leaf and
the simple inscription: Known unto God.
He was buried near the soaring Vimy
monument, where a sculpture of a hooded woman representing Canada broods
over her war dead.
"We don't know his name, we
don't know his age, we don't know his unit," Veterans Affairs
Minister George Baker said in France.
"Nobody knows. Only God knows
that.
"This is a truly great day for
Canadians," he added. "This is a continuation of our pledge that
we will never forget."
Vimy Ridge is identified by many
historians as the place where Canada became a nation in perhaps the
greatest military victory ever won by Canadian arms. Inscribed on the
ramparts of the memorial are the names of 11,285 soldiers who vanished in
the fog of battle with no known grave.
Cliff Chadderton, chairman of the
National Council of Veterans Associations, who attended both the French
and Ottawa ceremonies, said the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will awaken
interest among young people in the sacrifice Canadians have made for their
country.
"It's putting together a piece
of our history that's missing," he said.
© The Canadian
Press, 2000
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