A Canadian veteran is upset after a tree planted in his Nova Scotia town to commemorate soldiers who died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge was destroyed.
The oak tree was planted in an Amherst, N.S. park in August, and is one of many descended from a tree found in a Vimy field in 1917, according to CTV News.
It was broken in two pieces and uprooted early this month, CTV reported. City officials tried to save it by placing it in water but failed.
Veteran Jack Perry, 86, told Amherst News that seeing the broken sapling made him "sick to his stomach."
The Amherst Legion has applied for a new tree. Vimy Oak Legacy organizes the tree's distribution and each new sapling costs $125. Perry told Amherst News he hopes that whoever destroyed the original sapling will attend the new planting to learn about its significance.
"[We] purchase things like this so we can remember our heroes," he said. "We wouldn't be here today if it weren't for them... I'd like to invite whoever did this to the new tree-planting ceremony. Please come."
Police and city officials still don't know who did it or why. A spokesman for Amherst police told HuffPost Canada they were appealing to the public for information about the tree's destruction.
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