A national program has been using various research methods since 2007 to identify the skeletal remains of unknown Canadian forces.
The federal Casualty Identification Program works to determine the identity of such remains, found at a site or in a pre-existing unknown grave, with the intent of providing them with a proper military burial.
The program helps identify more than 27,000 Canadian service members who went missing during World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
Sarah Lockyer, who manages the programme, said modern activities such as construction or farming could unearth previously undiscovered remains of missing military personnel. The program can also attempt to identify those already buried as unknown soldiers, “if there is sufficient identifying information on the headstone, such as a rank, date of death or a unit,” she said.
“Normally that type of research is initiated by independent researchers who then submit the research, and then we can confirm or deny their hypothesis based on the historical information that is available,” Lockyer told CTV News Edmonton.
When investigations reveal a Canadian occupying an unidentified war grave, the program confirms the identity and then requests a new headstone with the military member’s name.
Various techniques are used to identify remains, including forensic anthropology – the main investigative method that involves constructing a biographical profile using age, gender, height and information in personnel files – dental information, DNA testing and stable isotope analysis .
However, not every method is perfect. Although there are dental records of World War II veterans, there are none of World War I veterans. While DNA analysis is an insightful tool, it also has limitations and complications, says Lockyer.
“If DNA testing is completely dependent on how well the DNA survived in the bone, I have had a number of different cases where the bone sample that I brought back to Canada, no DNA survived in that sample,” she said. “We either have to start over or maybe try to figure out another way to see if we can identify this person.”
Such a program helps honor those who served for Canada and allows families to discover what happened to them.
“I think the least we can do if the remains are discovered is to do absolutely everything we can to try to get their names and faces back to them, and we are doing that,” Lockyer said. “Unfortunately, we have some cases where we couldn’t do that, but we could at least give them a full military funeral.”
With files from Evan Kenny of CTV News Edmonton
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