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Click Here For Photos
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Local
video from Highway 401 at Cobourg
(Click Here)
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CTV Story about
Petition for Highway
of Heroes (Click Here)
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Petition for Highway of Heroes
(television)
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CTV
National News story
Petition for Highway of Heroes
Although there were fewer people than usual
standing vigil along the Highway of Heroes route Wednesday, people said it had
nothing to do with politics.
Pte. Simon Longtin, 23, from Longueuil, Quebec was killed by a roadside bomb
while traveling in a light armoured vehicle (LAV) in Afghanistan Aug.19. It’s
the first casualty in Afghanistan for the Royal 22nd Regiment - the VanDoos -
based in Quebec.
Previously, most Armed Forces repatriation services have been in the evening.
Hundreds of people have lined bridges from Trenton to Toronto. The repatriation
service for Pte. Longtin, was held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
"My opinion is a Canadian soldier is a Canadian soldier, and we support the
soldiers. The politics are out of it," Ted Welch of Port Hope said at a bridge
Wednesday.
Throughout Northumberland County, every fire department along the Lake Ontario
lakeshore had emergency equipment on 401 overpasses.
The Ontario Provincial Police, Port Hope Police and Cobourg Police along with
Northumberland County paramedics also took part in the service. So, too Royal
Canadian Legion representatives turned out.
Mr. Welch said he has been coming out to pay tribute on the 401 bridges since
2002 when the first Canadians troops were killed in Afghanistan. This past June,
he made flag standard for a Canadian flag which he now always brings to a
bridge.
Wearing a red "Support The Troops" sweatshirt, Mr. Welch said the only reason
the numbers of vigilants weren’t higher Wednesday is because people were
working.
Captain Bob Cranley of the Port Hope Fire Department said people who couldn’t
make it because of work "certainly wanted to be here.
"There isn’t a whole lot we can do. So, this is just a thing we can do to show
our support."
Starr Rath was holding a Canadian flag as she waited on a bridge for the
procession to come through Cobourg.
She said when three fallen soldiers passed through the area in June, she
witnessed two people in a car waving a Quebec flag give the finger to people
standing on the bridge.
"Now, we’re out here to support them as well,"Ms. Rath said Wednesday.
"They’re Canadians first and foremost," she said of the fallen troops..
"If our soldiers weren’t there, what would our country be like today?" Ms. Rath
asked. " Would they come in and attack us? To me, the boys (and girls) are
keeping us safe."
For Ken Carroll of Port Hope, the most emotional part was seeing the arms of
family members of Pte. Longtin waving from inside the limousine to the people on
the bridge.
"I can hardly talk about it," Mr. Carroll said.
"He’s fighting for our country; it’s the same flag. We owe him that," he said of
Pte. Longtin.
"We don’t have to do this," Mr. Carroll said of the bridge vigil. "We do it
because we want to do this. The little bit they do here is worth it."
A petition circulating on the Internet is calling for the stretch of Highway 401
between Trenton and Toronto to be renamed the Highway of Heroes in honour of the
fallen soldiers.
To date, close to 5,000 people have signed the petition. To view or sign the
petition, http://www.petitiononline.com/401Hero/.
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