A Canadian piper stands on the cenotaph commemorating those who have died in Afghanistan for Remembrance Day ceremonies at Kandahar Airfield on Tuesday. (Bill Graveland/Canadian Press)Canadian and coalition troops gathered in a square at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan to mark Remembrance Day and honour their fallen comrades on Tuesday.

The faces of the 97 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan over the last six years have been engraved on a black stone cenotaph in the square.

The family members of six of the soldiers arrived in Kandahar on Monday and were given a tour of the base before attending the Remembrance Day ceremony with the troops at the airfield on Tuesday.

Pte. Michel Levesque's mother, Elizabeth, was among the family members.

Levesque, 25, died in November 2007 when the armoured vehicle he was in hit an improvised explosive device near Bazar-e Panjwaii. He served with the Royal 22nd Regiment, also known as the Van Doos.

His mother said she made the pilgrimage to Kandahar to take her son's spirit home to Canada.

Families laid green wreaths around the cenotaph.

The Canadian mission to Afghanistan began in 2002, and Canada has about 2,500 troops in the volatile Kandahar province.

'It gives me a little bit more of him'

The families of fallen Canadian soldiers took part in Remembrance Day ceremonies at Kandahar Airfield on Tuesday. (Bill Graveland/Canadian Press)

"My sister asked me before I left, 'Why are you going?' " said Reine Dawe, the mother of Capt. Matthew Dawe, who was killed by a roadside bomb in July 2007.

"I said, 'Well, if your child was killed in a car accident, wouldn't you want to ... go and see where it happened?' " Dawe said.

"I want to see what was the last thing that he saw," she said. "It gives me a little bit more of him — of his physical presence. It's hard to put in words, but you know, you feel maybe a little bit closer to him by having seen what he saw just before he was killed."

Albert Graham, the father of Pte. Mark Graham, said the experience of being in Kandahar has further opened his eyes about what the military is doing in Afghanistan.

Graham died in September 2006 when two U.S. aircraft mistakenly strafed a Canadian platoon during an operation battling Taliban insurgents.

"We should stop and think — try to find out — a little more about how much the army is working," Graham said. "You know — [they're] not just fighting but rebuilding things."

Linda Learn, Pte. Mark Graham's mother, said she also appreciated the opportunity to hear from Afghanis about what is happening in the country.

"It really puts a different picture in my mind about Afghanistan," Learn said.

Soldier grateful to be spending time with family

Bombardier Ryan Scott, with the 116th Independent Field Battery in Kenora, Ont., returned to Canada from Afghanistan about two months ago.

Scott said he is grateful to be spending Remembrance Day with his family but his thoughts are with his comrades overseas.

"I know what it feels like first-hand for boys to go overseas," Scott said, "and what it's like to lose someone close to you, I guess."

Tuesday marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and tributes are scheduled to take place across the country and around the world.

During the 1914-1918 war, more than 600,000 Canadian soldiers volunteered to go overseas. More than 66,000 Canadian soldiers were killed and 172,000 wounded.

In Ottawa, Avril Stachnik will serve as this year's Silver Cross mother and will lay a wreath at the Canadian War Memorial during the capital's Remembrance Day ceremony.

Stachnik's son, Sgt. Shane Stachnik, died in September 2006 during a battle with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.

With files from the Canadian Press