Down the Highway of Heroes again

Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper has announced three more Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

Warrant Officer Dennis Raymond Brown, a reservist from the Lincoln and Welland Regiment in the Niagara Region, Corporal Danny Oliver Fortin from the 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron in Bagotville, Que., and Corporal Kenneth Chad O’Quinn from the 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signals Squadron in Petawawa, Ont., were killed when the vehicle in which they were riding ran over a bomb.

Part of what is called the Quick Reaction Force established to respond to all types of emergencies, including roadside bombs, the men were returning from a successful mission to clear a bomb that had been planted in a road. They took that bomb out of the ground but ran over another on their return trip.

The deaths bring the Canadian toll in Afghanistan to 111 and points to the growing strength of the Taliban and al Qaeda insurgency.