'Shameful': Monument honouring fallen soldiers included names of living veterans

Veterans are asking for answers after discovering that two sculptures in Ontario honouring fallen soldiers include the names of many people who are very much alive.

Veterans are asking for answers after discovering that two sculptures in Ontario honouring fallen soldiers include the names of many people who are very much alive.

Among the names is Helene Le Scelleur, a former captain who served in Afghanistan and Bosnia.

“I am here, I am alive,” she said from her home in Piedmont, Que.

Le Scelleur says she first learned about the sculptures, which are installed outside two Ontario OnRoute service centres, from another veteran whose name is also included. She says of the 67 people honoured, only about 20 died while in service. General Romeo Dallaire is also among the names. The decorated general celebrated his 78th birthday in June.

“I am so torn inside,” Le Scelleur says. “I lost two people in Afghanistan who were under my command, and they are not on that plaque.”

The sculptures are called “Presence in Absence” and were installed as part of the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign, which planted 2.5 million trees along Highway 401 in honour of Canadian troops. The bronze sculptures include silhouettes of a “handful of the heroic Canadian Armed Forces members who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” according to the description on the organization’s website.