Panels on an exhibit at the Vimy monument will be removed and replaced because of numerous errors in the French-language text, Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson said Thursday.

A Radio-Canada reporter discovered the interpretive panels on the Canadian monument in France contained errors in verb tenses, gender and word usage. For example, the English landmine is rendered as "le mine" rather than "la mine."

"I have just been made aware of this situation and it is totally unacceptable," Thompson said Thursday in a statement. "As soon as the errors were confirmed, it was obvious the only solution was to remove the panels."

Senator Roméo Dallaire, who sat on the committee working to restore the monument, said he was disturbed by the news.

The job of writing translations on the informative panels, which are not part of the monument itself, fell to volunteers, Radio-Canada reported.

French President Jacques Chirac will join Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several other dignitaries next week at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the battle.

The attack on Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, is seen as a key step in Canada's evolution as a nation, because all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together to take a German position that had resisted previous attacks.

In three days of heavy fighting, there were 10,602 Canadian casualties, including 3,598 dead, but the Germans lost control of the ridge and retreated.

Never agreed to buy students lunch

Thompson also rejected a claim that his department had agreed to buy lunch for 3,600 students who are going to France to mark the anniversary of the Canadian victory.

In an e-mail to teachers, the trip's head organizer, Dave Robinson, said the government had originally agreed to provide lunch for the students on April 9, the day of the ceremony at the Canadian memorial.

"There was no commitment made by Veterans Affairs to do that," Thompson said.

The memorial marks the site of the battle for Vimy Ridge. Students from all over the country — one for each Canadian killed — are visiting Canadian battlefields in France. 

The students raised the money to pay for their travel and other costs on the trip. Taxpayers are paying for more than 100 government officials to attend the ceremony, along with 20 veterans, 300 armed forces personnel and 20 Mounties.

Robinson said trip organizers have had to come up with $33,000 to pay for the lunches. The money was to have been used to buy the students souvenirs.