9/11 anniversary offers a chance to do better
OTTAWA—This Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a day when more than 3,000 people lost their lives, and that sowed the seeds for a decades-long war, and—among other things—saw Canadians help numerous Americans and others in need. On that day 25 years ago, thousands of stranded travellers ended up in Gander, N.L., and other communities across Canada as closed American airspace meant they couldn’t get home for days.
On Sept. 11, in Gander, the community that has been globally recognized and immortalized in the incredible musical Come From Away will host a ceremony of remembrance. This event comes at a time when Canada’s government and its people find themselves embroiled in trade war with the United States, and subject to an almost daily litany of insulting and demeaning comments from the U.S. president and his administration.
The current U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has announced his intention to go to Gander and say thank you, and pay respects to the locals who did so much 25 years ago. Previous U.S. representatives have done this, and it has been well received. The challenge the current ambassador faces as he plans to head east is that there is an unease in the region given his closeness to the president, and his seeming pleasure in parroting some of his boss’ worst propaganda.
The Town of Gander went so far last week as to issue a public statement to remind people that, despite the current historic political tensions between Canada and the U.S., the ceremony is about remembering how people helped people—not politics. One hopes the message was not only heard by the people of Gander, also by Ambassador Hoekstra himself.
The ambassador has not hesitated in other Canadian public spaces to lecture audiences about this country not doing enough to support America. He seems more often than not to have historical amnesia about Canada’s—and Gander’s—incredible support on 9/11, or about the more than 150 Canadians who died in Afghanistan helping our American allies.
Hopefully, Hoekstra will do what he rarely seems to do when he goes anywhere in Canada: just say thank you to the people of Gander and Canada for being there for the U.S. and her people on 9/11. He’d be wise to leave the politics and his boss’ propaganda at home.
Maybe he’ll take some time to do a bit of learning over lecturing while in Newfoundland and Labrador. He might want to bone up on the 1941 Lend-Lease deal between the U.S. and the United Kingdom that saw the Americans operate five military bases in Newfoundland and Labrador, including one in Gander. That arrangement brought thousands of American soldiers to The Rock for numerous years, many of whom married Newfoundlanders and built lifelong bonds with the province. Or Hoekstra could dig into the Atlantic Conference that happened off of Newfoundland's coast in Placentia Bay in August 1941, where then-U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt met secretly with then-British prime minister Winston Churchill to map out a world after the end of the Second World War.
I appreciate that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but if there was ever a time for the U.S. representative to Canada to be reminded of our shared history, it is now. Particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador, where generations of Newfoundlanders and Americans built unbreakable personal bonds on a people-to-people basis fighting the Second World War and responding to the biggest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Respect and recognition are needed now, not reckless inflammatory language. On Friday, let us strive for better—that is the least that can be done on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Tim Powers is chairman of Summa Strategies, and managing director of Abacus Data. He is a former adviser to Conservative political leaders.
The Hill Times