N.S. archaeologist proposes team to search for Canadians missing in world wars

An adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax wants to start an archaeological team that actively searches for Canadians missing in action to hopefully provide closure to some families.

It's believed there are some 27,000 Canadian soldiers still missing in action with no known grave from the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War. 

Aaron Taylor said Canada doesn't have an active search program, but rather a passive one which employs a forensic anthropologist to identify the remains of missing military personnel who are unintentionally unearthed, mostly in European battlefields.

It's called the Casualty Identification Program, and since its inception in 2007, the remains of more than 40 Canadian soldiers have been identified. 

"We're not actively searching for our MIA, as opposed to the United States. They have a very robust search program that historians, archivists — they look at case files of their missing in action," Taylor told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Halifax on Monday. 

"Then when it reaches a certain threshold they send out an investigation team. They go to this site where this person is, or persons have been, reported as missing. They do a survey and investigation and if it meets the threshold, they send out a recovery team." 

That organization is called the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is responsible for identifying the remains of missing soldiers, sailors and aircrew from past conflicts. 

Taylor said he has been working with them, most recently in France last month to help recover the remains of an American soldier who has been missing since the Second World War.

He was joined by eight university students and seven volunteers from Canada, the United States and Belgium.

Proposed pilot project

Taylor said he hopes to start a similar program in Canada. Last fall, he proposed the program, which he wants to be a five-year pilot project to start, in an email to the minister of defence.

The Department of National Defence sent him a letter, which said when remains of a Canadian service member is discovered, the Casualty Identification Program "endeavours to identify the remains of the member, in collaboration with the other nations linked to the crash, as needed."

But Taylor said more can be done. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency believes about 40 per cent of soldiers missing in action are recoverable, he said.

He said the organization has set a "great example" of how to find and recover remains, and it's become easier with advances in DNA technology.

"We only need a tiny fragment of bone, and we can make that match and we can bring closure to families that, you know, have been waiting decades and decades and decades," he said.

He said he's worried the cost of the missions might be one of the reasons Canada hasn't moved forward. The American mission in France last month cost less than $200,000, he said.

"You could make the argument that it's expensive, but then again, when someone pays the ultimate sacrifice, a family, the least a country, in my opinion, can do is to try — when they can, if they can — to bring that person home," he said.

In a statement to CBC News, the Department of National Defence said it values identifying the remains of lost Canadians as a way to memorialize those who gave their lives for the country, and to bring closure to their families.

"However, resources are currently not available for the department to actively search for Canadians reported missing during the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean War. No discussions are currently taking place about resuming active searches for missing war veterans, a practice that was suspended in 1921."

Taylor said there are experts in Canada that have the technology to do it, and if they can help even one family find closure, it would be worth it.

"It's a sacred duty, I personally believe, and I've talked to enough Canadians to know that I'm not alone, it's a sacred duty," he said.

"When you send your young people off to foreign lands to fight in the name of your country, there's an obligation that you try to bring them back."