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In a ceremony fit for a head of state, the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest yesterday at the National War Memorial. The crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000 mourners reflected every segment of society, teens and tots, mothers and fathers, and hundreds of veterans from all arms of the service. Thousands more watched at home on television. It was a fitting tribute to a man who gave his life anonymously to foster the diversity of the country and dreams of Canadians, said Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson. "Today, we are gathered together as one, to bury someone's son," she said in her eulogy. "The only certainty about him is that he was young. If death is a debt we all must pay, he paid before he owed it." In return, the country promises to never forget the sacrifice he made in a far-off land, she said. The body was brought from a grave in France last Thursday, and thousands of Canadians paid their respects as the Unknown Soldier lay in state at Parliament Hill for three days. The Unknown Soldier made the last leg of his journey to the the Cenotaph carried by a 100-year-old horse-drawn gun carriage. As four RCMP horses slowly led the Unknown Soldier to his final resting place, guns fired 21 times in the traditional military salute to a valorous comrade. After opening remarks by Canadian Forces chaplain-general Brig.-Gen. Murray Farwell, Madame Clarkson gave her moving eulogy: "We do not know whose son he was. We do not know his name ... We do not know if his mother or wife received that telegram with the words 'Missing In Action' typed with electrifying clarity on the anonymous piece of paper." And the only person who does know will keep his secret for eternity, she added. "We who are left have all kinds of questions that only he could answer. And we, by this act today, are admitting with terrible finality that we will never know those answers." "We do not know whether he had begun truly to live his life as a truck driver or a scientist, a miner or a teacher, a farmer or a student. We do not know where he came from. "Was it the Prairies whose rolling, sinuous curves recall a certain kind of eternity? Was he someone who loved our lakes and knew them from a canoe? "Was he someone who saw the whales at the mouth of the Saguenay? "Was he someone who hiked in the Rockies or went sailing in the Atlantic or in the Gulf Islands? "Did he have brown eyes?" While no honour given the Unknown Soldier will replace the loss of life and identity, he has become more than one casualty in a distant war. "He has become more than one body, more than one grave," Madame Clarkson said. "He is an ideal. He is a symbol of all sacrifice. He is every soldier in all our wars." Prime Minister Jean Chretien continued the theme in a brief eulogy of his own, saying the Unknown Soldier is "Canada's lost son no more." "Through him we are bringing home and laying to rest every one of our fathers, mothers, friends, and relatives who gave their lives so we could have peace and freedom," Mr. Chretien said. "This monument will serve as a constant reminder of all we owe them." After the prime minister's short address, Brig.-Gen. Farwell conducted a non-denominational service beginning with the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd," and ending with the famous words from Ecclesiastes: "To everything there is a time ... there is a time for war and a time for peace." A 10-person guard of honour, including officers of the RCMP representing the force's lesser-known wartime contributions, approached the tomb and removed the Canadian flag draped over the the silver maple coffin resting on the hand-hewn, Caledonian granite sarcophagus. The tomb is marked simply: "The Unknown Soldier, Le Soldat Inconnu." The flag was presented to Defence Minister Art Eggleton. Then, after a short pause, the guard of honour slowly lowered the casket into the tomb, as many veterans wept openly, no longer able to contain their emotion. A traditional three volleys was fired by a firing party as the casket was lowered. Legion members carrying bags, boxes and urns dropped onto the casket handfuls of soil from the 10 provinces and three territories, as well as soil from the cemetery on Vimy Ridge in France where the Unknown Soldier lay buried for more than 70 years. Grand Chief Howard Anderson of the Gordon Reserve, north of Regina, added a mix of tobacco and sweetgrass as well as a ceremonial eagle feather. After two minutes of silence, a lone piper played Lament for the Unknown Soldier as four CF-18 fighters screamed overhead, with one disappearing skyward in the traditional "missing-man formation." Paul Metivier, a 100-year-old First World War veteran from Nepean, and Victoria Cross winner Ernest "Smoky" Smith, a veteran of the Italian campaign in the Second World War, read the simple words of Laurence Binyon's Act of Remembrance. "They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning. We will remember them." A temporary cover was installed over the tomb, which is to be sealed with a granite lid decorated with bronzes by sculptor Mary-Ann Liu.
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