Latest Canadian soldier to die on Afghan mission returns home
Posted April 14, 2010 5:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Family, friends and comrades all took part in a somber repatriation ceremony at CFB Trenton, Wednesday, for the latest Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay and General Walter Natynczyk, the chief of defense staff, were also on hand to pay their respects.
Firefighters, police officers, veterans and family members of those serving in the military were among the thousands of people who gathered along the Highway of Heroes, as they waved flags and saluted the body of Pte. Tyler William Todd as it was taken by motorcade to the coroners’ office in downtown Toronto.
Todd grew up on his family’s farm in Bright, Ontario, which is in the Kitchener-Waterloo region.
Among the people gathered along the Brock Street overpass was Randy Simpson, who grew up with Pte. Todd’s mother in Bright.
“The whole community is really saddened by what has happened. They are pulling together. Everyone wants the best of the family, and it’s going to be difficult for him. Tyler was a well known young guy around the area and he’s defiantly going to be missed.” Simpson told 680News.
Todd’s family said their son was an adventurous young man who never missed an opportunity to put a smile on someone’s face. He always wanted to join the army, and as a child would dress in his grandfather’s army uniform.
The 26-year-old was killed on the weekend by a powerful roadside bomb just outside a village south of Kandahar city.
He was a member of 11 Platoon, Delta Company from the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.
His death brings to 142 the number of Canadian soldiers who have died as part of the Afghan mission.
