About 5,000 people filled an auditorium at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick Wednesday afternoon for a memorial service to honour eight Canadian soldiers killed during a one-week period in Afghanistan.

The two-hour bilingual service featured brief remarks by political figures and military officers, music by St. Mary's Chapel Choir and 3rd Field Artillery Regiment Band, and a prayer and drum ritual performed by the Oromocto First Nation.

Last post is played at the memorial service at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick Wednesday.
(CBC)

There were also videotaped tributes from seven soldiers in Afghanistan, who expressed their condolences and heartfelt sorrow to the grieving families.

"I knew them all quite well and I'm sorry," one soldier said. "They will be missed."

The soldiers died in two separate roadside bomb attacks in the volatile southern province of Kandahar. Six were killed on Easter Sunday, while two were killed three days later.

On April 8, Sgt. Donald Lucas, Master Cpl. Christopher Stannix, Cpl. Aaron Williams, Cpl. Brent Poland, Pte. David Greenslade and Pte. Kevin Kennedy, members of Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their light armoured vehicle about 75 kilometres west of Kandahar City.

All but Stannix were members of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Gagetown. Stannix was a reservist from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers.

On April 11, Master Cpl. Allan Stewart and Trooper Patrick Pentland, members of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in CFB Petawawa, were killed after a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle about 38 kilometres west of Kandahar City. The soldiers had been helping another vehicle struck by a roadside bomb earlier in the day.

Individual funerals for all the soldiers have been held.

Large portraits of each of the servicemen stood at the front of the hall beneath a huge Canadian flag.

Soldiers remembered as "our truest heroes"

"As we've learned in the days since this tragic loss, they were more than just courageous men committed to a dangerous mission," said Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson.

"They were deeply loved fathers and husbands, deeply loves sons and brothers. They were loyal friends and dedicated comrades," Thompson said. "They were, and they remain, our truest heroes."

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the military's chief of land staff, assured the soldiers' families their sacrifices would not be forgotten.

"The mission in Afghanistan is difficult and the sacrifices, as seen today, have been extraordinarily painful for all of us," he said.

"But in future, when people look back on this mission, they'll realize that Canadian soldiers made an enormous difference in a crucial conflict," Leslie said. "They will have helped the Afghan people to rebuild their shattered country and broken lives."

New Brunswick's Lt.-Gov. Herménégilde Chiasson called the soldiers heroes, whose deaths should serve to remind people that the freedom we enjoy, often without ever thinking about it, sometimes comes at a very high price.

"The fine men that we honour today knew that their lives could take a dramatic change, knew that the possibility was there that they would be part of a ceremony such as this one," and yet they did the job anyway, Chiasson said.

As the service neared an end, family members of the soldiers filed up to the stage to light a candle in front of each of the pictures.

Canada has more than 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, with the majority stationed in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.

Fifty-four soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops there in early 2002.

With files from the Canadian Press