A time to remember
April deaths painful for mother, country

By The Canadian Press and Brian Underhill

Ottawa - It was a Remembrance Day like no other for a long time, with the deaths of four Canadian soldiers still hurting like raw, open wounds on the national consciousness.

Thousands gathered at war memorials across the country Monday to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice in wars throughout the last century and, now, in this one.

Estimates of the crowd in Ottawa ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 - more than in many years. They joined Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson under pelting rain at the National War Memorial.

With them was Doreen Coolen of Hubbards, whose youth - she's 40 - seemed incongruous with the role of Silver Cross Mother.

Her 21-year-old son, Pte. Ricky Green, and three other Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on April 18. Not including peacekeepers, they were the first Canadian combat casualties in 50 years.

"It's quite overwhelming," Mrs. Coolen said after placing a wreath at the memorial in the shadow of the Peace Tower. "It's been an exceptional honour to be chosen the Silver Cross Mother.

"It is a bit of closure. Being on the dais with Her Excellency and the prime minister was a big help, a very big help."

Mrs. Coolen, who held Clarkson's hand throughout the ceremony, said she was thinking of how proud her son was in his career and "how his young life was taken so tragically."

"Too young, too young," she said.

Pte. Green died along with Sgt. Marc Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer and Pte. Nathan Smith when a U.S. plane dropped a 250-kilogram bomb on a Canadian live-fire night exercise near Kandahar.

Two U.S. pilots face military charges over the accident in which eight other Canadians were wounded.

"We keep a special place in our thoughts for those fine Canadian soldiers whom we lost this year, and for their families," the Governor General said in her Remembrance Day message.

"The new century has not lessened the call to duty and service. We can no better honour them than by remaining resolute in the defence of freedom and peace."

Mr. Chretien issued a statement recalling "the precious cost of freedom, a cost the brave men and women of our Armed Forces are always ready to pay."

U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci placed a wreath commemorating those who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"They really are casualties in a different kind of war," Mr. Cellucci said in an interview.

Veterans groups, youngsters, the chief of the defence staff and the minister of veterans affairs also placed wreaths against the weathered stones.

Hundreds of veterans, their campaign medals gleaming on their chests, clustered at the memorial. They included Paul Metivier, a centenarian veteran of the First World War.

Lt.-Col. Pat Stogran, who commanded Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, said all who served with him returned as changed people, "but our experiences pale in comparison to the guys who we see on parade here today."

"They went over for years, not months as we did. They lost many friends. I find it a very humbling experience this year compared to other years."

Stellarton native Wayne MacKay said attending the ceremony in Ottawa was a special experience for him.

"I've seen it on TV numerous times and figured I had the opportunity so why not go to the nation's capital to honour our veterans," he said in an interview across the street from the National War Memorial.

Mr. MacKay has served in the cadets and militia and is now in the reserves.

He said he suspects the terrorist attacks of September 2001 probably accounted for the large number of younger people at the ceremony.

He also said it was "very nice" that Mrs. Coolen was honoured as this year's national Silver Cross Mother.

That likely attracted a number of veterans of recent peacekeeping missions to the ceremony, he said.

"I noticed today walking up that there were a number of Armed Forces people not on parade today," Mr. MacKay said. "You can see the different jackets from different tours like Bosnia and they're here probably because of that also."

Across Canada there was a poignancy in Monday's ceremonies that many Canadians haven't felt for a long time.

In Halifax, Charlotte Smith, mother of Pte. Nathan Smith, was the provincial Silver Cross Mother. She broke down during the hymn Abide With Me before placing a wreath at the cenotaph.

"Like any other Canadian, for a long period of time we took the military for granted, but now that's changed, obviously," Smith's father Lloyd told the ATV television network after the ceremony.

"We've lost a son as a result of conflict. We really appreciate the part the military plays now in our lives, everyday lives."

In Toronto, Dyer's father said he wept for two days going into Monday's ceremony at his son's former high school. A scholarship was awarded in memory of the young paratrooper.

"He was a fantastic human being and I'm very proud of him for what he did," said Paul Beaton, a former classmate who fought tears throughout the ceremony.

In Edmonton, after Leger's widow Marley and Smith's fiancee Jodi Carter - formerly of Nova Scotia - placed wreaths, Alberta Lt.-Gov. Lois Hole made a plea for peace and embraced both women.

"I think the greatest mistake we can make as human beings is when we surrender to the feeling that it's only a matter of time until the next big war," said Lt.-Gov. Hole. "I don't believe that's true.

"We can avoid war if we dedicate ourselves to working for peace."

Some who served during the Persian Gulf War said they're bitter that another Remembrance Day passed without the government including them in official ceremonies. Many say they need financial help to fight illnesses, both physical and mental, they say are a result of the Gulf War.

As a protest, the vets placed their own wreath at the National War Memorial.

"I feel cheated," said Louis Lamarre. "I feel betrayed by my government, because they turned their backs on us."

And after years of fighting for what they believed was their due, some aboriginal veterans are giving up their struggle for compensation and accepting an offer of much less from Ottawa.

"It's very unfortunate that this has come to this," said Howard Anderson, head of the Saskatchewan First Nations Veterans Association.

"I don't think it's good, but when you're 78, 79 or 80 years old, somewhere you're going to quit. Most of them are taking what's there.