We don't know his religion or what region of the country he came from.
We DO know that he was a Canadian, for among his remains (besides pieces of a gas mask) were buttons from a Canadian military tunic and brass shoulder flashes inscribed with his country's name.
He is everyone's father, brother, husband, and son.
He is our sense of pride and our sense of loss.
He is every soldier who has ever fallen.
The nameless soldier was brought from a grave in France and lay in state in the Hall of Honour in the Parliament Building in Ottawa for 3 days, as thousands of his fellow Canadians paid tribute.
They carried him through the streets of Ottawa on a gun carriage drawn by four black horses. Honour guards marched in front to the slow beat of drums muffled by black cloth. Guns fired 21 times as the procession moved past onlookers. Hundreds of veterans stood by, as the pallbearers (army, navy, air force, and Mounties) positioned the silver maple coffin over the granite sarcophagus. It was draped in the Maple Leaf flag that this soldier never knew.
