Funeral held for Quebec soldier Drouin
Last Updated: Saturday, September 19, 2009 | 4:16 PM ET
CBC News
Audrey Beaucage, wife of Cpl. Jean-François Drouin, releases a dove after the funeral service as Drouin's father, Marc, and sister Marie-Claude, left, look on. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)A funeral service was held Saturday morning for Cpl. Jean-François Drouin, killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Sept. 6.
Mourners filled the Saint-Louis-de-Courville church in the Quebec City borough of Beauport to pay their last respects.
Drouin, 31, grew up in the Quebec City area and was based at CFB Valcartier, Que. He went to Afghanistan for the first time last April.
After the service his wife, Audrey Beaucage, stood alongside the fallen soldier's sister and father and released a dove.
Meanwhile, the body of another Canadian soldier killed in a roadside bomb blast was en route to Canada.
The casket carrying the remains of Pte. Jonathan Couturier was to return home Sunday aboard a flight headed for CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario.
Born in Loretteville, in the Quebec City region, Couturier, 23, was based in Valcartier and was on his first mission to Afghanistan.
He was killed in the Panjwaii district, southwest of Kandahar city, on Sept. 17. Eleven other soldiers on foot patrol in the vicinity of the explosion were injured.
Couturier was the 131st Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002.
Relatives say he lost his life over a military mission that he had called "a bit useless."
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