TORONTO -- A planned procession of nearly 100 cars and trucks, scheduled to travel from Trenton, Ont., to Toronto this weekend to commemorate the lives of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, has some military families seeing red.
Saturday's event, organized by a group called the Red Fridays Foundation of Canada, will be led by a red Chrysler -- donated by a local dealership -- emblazoned with the names of 83 soldiers killed since 2002.
Another 83 red vehicles, all of them provided by individual supporters, will follow the lead car down the stretch of Ontario freeway dubbed the Highway of Heroes -- the same route taken by the solemn procession that follows the repatriation of a fallen soldier's remains.
"It's a tribute to the men and women who have recently fallen in Afghanistan,'' said event organizer Brian Muntz, who expects about 15 families who have lost loved ones to the war, including some from outside Ontario, to participate.
"This is something to bring support for our troops to the public forefront.''
Muntz said he's encouraging members of the public to participate, and expects as many as 1,000 private vehicles to join the procession.
But the original founders of the Red Fridays movement, which encourages Canadians to support the military by wearing red on the last day of the work week, aren't affiliated with Muntz's group and say some families don't approve of having their loved one's name on the car.
"We support any event for our troops and their families, but we don't believe in a lot of things that are happening in this event,'' said Lisa Miller, a military wife who started Red Fridays along with her friend Karen Boire.
"Like the names that are on the red car without permission. I know that's upset a lot of people.''
The car isn't meant to be an advertisement, Muntz said.
"This car was made to honour those who have fallen,'' he said. "It doesn't say anywhere on the car to give money or anything like that, it says to wear red on Fridays, and that is a non-partisan way to show that we care and we support our troops.''
Muntz said he has received no complaints, but pledged to remove any name from the car if the families wish it.
The car is to be auctioned off after the rally, with proceeds going to a veterans' centre in Toronto. But the car isn't the only problem, say Boire and Miller, who accused Muntz of using their Red Fridays movement and their names without their permission.
"We found out about Brian Muntz and the Red Fridays website about seven months after we had started promoting Red Fridays,'' Miller said.
"We found him because our names were on his site, but we had no idea who he was. We were angry.''
Their names were also being used to solicit financial donations, Boire added. "We have never asked anybody for money, and we don't plan on starting to. Everything we do, we do on our own.''
Muntz later agreed to remove their names from the site after they complained.
However, many people still associate the two women with the Red Fridays Foundation and continue to call with offers to donate, Boire said.
The Red Fridays Foundation is not a registered charity, but Muntz said proceeds from Saturday's event are to be donated to various organizations, including the Canadian Hearing Society, which helps veterans who suffer from hearing loss.
It's not unusual for individuals or businesses to organize patriotic events in Canada, and people shouldn't be upset by it, said military historian Jack Granatstein.
"History should tell us that this has been the way it's been ever since the bond drives during the First World War, when companies took out full-page ads and made it a point to support the victory bond efforts,'' Granatstein said.
"It costs money to organize events of any kind, and a patriotic event spontaneously organized by individuals requires some funding. If a car dealer or a food company or a 'Johnny-on-the-spot' company figures it's important to do something like this, I don't see that it's a bad thing at all.''
The day-long event starts at 9 a.m. with a rally at the Centennial Park Amphitheatre in Trenton, an hour's drive east of Toronto, with the procession scheduled to begin at noon. A rally and military tribute is also scheduled to take place in Toronto.
