Soldiers launch lawsuit over roadside monuments that they say imply they were among war dead

A pair of bronze cylindrical sculptures, erected along Ontario’s Highway of Heroes, where military convoys carrying the remains of those killed in combat in Afghanistan once passed, were part of a plan to honour Canada’s war dead.

The roadside monuments, unveiled in 2022 outside ONroute rest stops on Highway 401 near Trenton and Port Hope, were called Presence in Absence and they included references to soldiers both living and dead. However, five living female veterans, whose names and silhouettes were used on the monuments, say the sculptures wrongly implied that they are among Canada’s fallen soldiers.