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Canada

Canada’s Unknown Soldier in 2025: Where science collides with sacred symbolism

Red paper flowers are spread over a stone carved tomb. A crowd of people are gathered around the tomb. A soldier in uniform salutes.

Canada’s Unknown Soldier — a casualty of the First World War — was brought home to be interred in Ottawa 25 years ago, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission forbids any attempt at identification. Advances in DNA technology mean that in future wars, the chances that soldiers won’t be identified are slim. Does the concept of an Unknown Soldier still have meaning to a new, on-demand generation, or will it become a relic of a bygone era?