American diplomat recalls Canada’s solidarity after Sept. 11 attacks

U.S. Consul General in Toronto Baxter Hunt says one of his clearest memories of the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was arriving at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa to find a mountain of flowers outside. Hunt, then the embassy’s 38-year-old political-military officer, said Canadians’ support remained striking.

Friday marks 25 years since al-Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 3,000 people in the United States. Hunt said Canada offered repeated displays of compassion in the days that followed.

Three days after the attacks, an RCMP estimate reported by The Canadian Press put the crowd for a national day of mourning on Parliament Hill at 80,000. Then-prime minister Jean Chrétien told the gathering that Canadians’ concern, sympathy and help conveyed a message to Americans that they were not alone and had the support of Canada and the world. Provincial legislatures and Bay Street also observed silences in Canada’s first official day of mourning in three decades.

On the day of the attacks, Gander, N.L., took in 38 passenger planes carrying more than 6,500 travellers after U.S. airspace closed. Hunt called the community’s help for strangers extraordinary, adding that he understood about 33,000 other stranded passengers went to locations elsewhere in Canada. He also noted that 24 Canadians were killed in the attacks alongside other non-Americans.

Hunt said U.S. diplomats quickly worked with Canadian law-enforcement and military officials to identify threats because it was initially unclear whether more attacks might follow. Canada and the United States standardized airport security, allies conducted air patrols around the U.S., and NATO invoked its collective-security clause for the first time. Canadian and allied troops then fought the Taliban in Afghanistan; the conflict lasted more than 12 years and killed 165 Canadians, including 158 soldiers and seven civilians.

Speaking to The Canadian Press shortly before trade negotiations in Washington collapsed, Hunt said the depth of cross-border relationships has endured through ups and downs. Prime Minister Mark Carney had accused the U.S. of waging an economic “war” on its former ally, while U.S. President Donald Trump moved to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Hunt said the sense that Canadians and Americans are friends and neighbours in an extended North American family remains strong.

The Toronto consulate is holding anniversary events this month, including an exhibition at a Toronto arts centre of pen-and-ink drawings by Toronto-based artist John Coburn, who was in New York after the attacks. The exhibition includes interactive events with local college students, many born after 2001. On the anniversary, the consulate will bring first responders and government officials together at the same centre to honour victims; Maureen Basnicki, whose husband Ken was killed at the World Trade Center, will attend. Hunt will also open the Toronto Stock Exchange that day and visit a memorial walkway in St. Catharines, Ont., on Thursday.