The terrorist crisis: The view from Canada - World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, 2001 - War on Terrorism, 2001-

Contemporary Review, March, 2002 by Habeeb Salloum

Editor's Note: The terrorist attacks of September 11, and the events that followed, provoked worldwide interest. In the next few months we will be having a series about the reactions in different countries. We begin with the view from the United States' closest neighbour.

I WAS in an upbeat mood, that Tuesday morning of September 11 as I turned on my car radio. Driving along, I half heard the announcer discussing airplanes crashing into the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Center. 'There they go again! They love to re-create Orson Wells's radio fantasy of the last century', I thought to myself as I flipped off the radio.

A few minutes later as I entered my Toronto home, I heard the telephone ringing. Picking up the receiver, my daughter's voice, loud and clear, was almost hysterical, 'Put on the TV! Put on the TV! There's something awful happening in New York'.

That day, like the vast number of North Americans, I sat traumatized watching the horrific events unfolding. I was stunned and sickened by the appalling images, replayed over and over again on the TV screen. Every few minutes, pictures of passenger-filled planes being transformed into living missiles, as they crashed into the Twin Towers, appeared. The scenes were more dreadful than a ghastly nightmare.

I was jolted from these panoramas of death and destruction before me by the sudden words of the announcer: 'A plane has crashed into the Pentagon'. Then a few minutes later by devastating news again -- another plane crash in Pennsylvania. The saga continued. It was like watching how preachers love to describe Armageddon -- a world of horror, insanity and tragedy.

In all parts of Canada, people were glued to their television sets, or listening to any radio available. They watched the grim scenes as the Twin Towers went down like flimsy houses of cards. Just as all across the U.S.A., people were confused, scared and shocked as they tried to sort out the horrific tragedy happening before their eyes.

This deadliest attack in US history, even though it did not touch Canada in any way, still affected the country to almost the same degree as happened across the border. American and Canadian television offered basically identical news, and reaction to the events did not differ to any extent. Within a couple of hours of the devastation in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, towering skyscrapers in Canadian cities like Toronto were soon empty of office workers, air traffic was grounded, financial markets were closed and, for days, the tragedy dominated the thoughts and emotions of people across the width and breadth of Canada.

From the furthest east to the Pacific coast, Canada's newspapers featured for days the terrible events, such as the headline in the September 12th issue of The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, which read: 'A Day of Infamy -- Bush promises Swift Revenge as Hijackers Strike the World's Financial Heart Killing Thousands and Ushering in a Chilling New Age of Terror'. Canadian media in all its branches, as usually happens in any international crisis, echoed that of its southern neighbour.

Almost immediately after the assaults, with virtually no proof, the North American media pointed an accusing finger at Arabs and Muslims. Some American officials blamed Iraq's Saddam Hussein, the usual villain for more than a decade; others blamed Arabs and Muslims in general. However, most fingers were pointed at Osama Ben Laden and his al-Qaida organization as the real culprits behind the onslaughts. The explanations by experts, tones of the announcers and repetitions of biased reporting set the stage for Arabs and Muslims to feel besieged.

President George Bush's declaration that the US was at 'war' immediately placed Canada in the front lines. Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien reacted with horror at the unparalleled and cowardly assault on innocent Americans and called for solidarity with Canada's neighbour. He went on to declare, 'Canada treats a terrorist attack against any one of its NATO allies as an attack against itself ... we will be with America every step of the way: as friends, as neighbours, as family'.

Canada called for collective NATO action and the FBI and RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) began to work closely together. Canada's RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli told a press conference, 'When something like this happens, we automatically look to see what is the possible connection to Canada'. Putting these words into action, his force immediately began to investigate if Canada had been used as a staging ground for the attacks.

Immediately, on the 11th of September, all domestic flights were put on hold in order that US bound planes could unload their trans-Atlantic passengers at Canadian airports. In the hours after the attack 25,000 of these diverted air passengers disembarked in Canada. They were treated royally by Canadian customs officials and were made to feel at home by the general public. (Later, articles appeared in the British and American press praising this hospitality and one of the American executives who had been stranded set up a scholarship fund for Canadian students as a sign of gratitude.)