Hundreds attend soldier's funeral in Winnipeg
Last Updated: Monday, July 28, 2008 | 8:44 PM CT
CBC News
A piper plays as the casket of Cpl. James Arnal is marched to a waiting hearse during a repatriation ceremony at CFB Trenton in Ontario on July 22. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)The private funeral for Cpl. James Arnal, killed July 18 while serving in Afghanistan, took place Monday afternoon at Winnipeg's Grant Memorial Baptist Church, followed by a procession through city streets to allow the public to pay their respects.
Several hundred people gathered at the church to remember the 25-year-old soldier, who was killed by a roadside bomb while on a foot patrol near the city of Kandahar.
Arnal's brother remembered Jim, as he was known, as a kid who loved video games, his dogs and hockey. Arnal's aunt read messages of condolence from as far away as Romania, many of them from fellow soldiers, some from other families who have lost sons, brothers and husbands in Afghanistan.
Arnal, who was born in Saskatchewan but grew up in Winnipeg, was on his second tour of duty when he died and had already signed up for a third. The 88th Canadian soldier to die as part of the Afghan mission, he was a member of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and was stationed at Canadian Forces Base Shilo in Manitoba.
Soldiers carried the flag-draped coffin to a hearse for the funeral procession, which started at Grant Memorial Baptist Church and passed along Wilkes Avenue, Portage Avenue, Main Street, Water Avenue and Provencher Boulevard before ending at the Desjardins funeral home on Des Meurons Street.
