Posted on 08/24/2002 5:24:46 AM PDT by badfreeper
The federal government has selected Gander, Nfld., as the site for a national remembrance ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Jean Chrétien will lead the remembrance service in Gander, the Atlantic outpost where dozens of international flights made emergency landings on the day air traffic was grounded because of terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
Plans for the ceremony were to be kept secret until next week. But an event co-ordinator confirmed yesterday it will go ahead and that the Prime Minister, as well as Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, will be there.
"The national focus will be on Gander," Dan McNeil, a director in the Privy Council Office, said yesterday from Ottawa.
Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Cellucci are expected to speak at the ceremony.
The ceremony, at Gander's airport, will be televised nationally on the CBC.
"The event in Gander is meant to commemorate not just Gander, but what happened across the country," Mr. McNeil said.
More than 100 international flights made unplanned landings at Canadian airports on the morning of Sept. 11, when air traffic authorities shut down the airways over North America following the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Thirty-eight of the flights were diverted to Gander, stranding more than 6,700 passengers and crew in the town of 10,000 for several days.
Ganderites and residents of about a half-dozen neighbouring communities responded, billeting the stranded passengers in their homes, feeding them, giving them showers, meals clean clothes and opening up their school gyms, where emergency staff worked around the clock for several days to help the unexpected travellers.
Jim DeFede, an American who has written a book about Gander's role in the events of Sept. 11, praised the Prime Minister and Mr. Cellucci for their decisions to begin the day there.
"I planned on being in Gander anyway. I think it's wonderful news that now the Prime Minister is going to be there. too," said Mr. DeFede, whose book, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, is to be released soon.
The author, who spent several weeks in Gander recently, said he was particularly glad to learn Mr. Cellucci would be attending the ceremony, since it sends a message that Americans appreciate the help they received last Sept. 11 from their Canadian neighbours.
Many Canadians were angry that George W. Bush, the U.S. President, in a state-of-the-union address, thanked several countries for their support but omitted Canada.
"Unfortunately, I think the people of the United States don't always appreciate what a friend they had in Canada, and what a great friend they had in Gander that day," Mr. DeFede said.
Claude Elliott, Gander's Mayor, also said he was looking forward to the ceremony, the latest in a long list of tributes to the Newfoundland town's residents.
Gander has been praised on a Web site created by some of those stranded last year. Several airlines whose planes were diverted to Gander established a scholarship fund for the town's children. The German airline Lufthansa named a new passenger jet after Gander earlier this year.
But Mr. Elliott said tributes were not what Ganderites were after when they pitched in last Sept. 11.
"There were 6,000 people here that needed help, so we helped them," he said. "We did what we had to do. I guess the rest of the world thinks it's a great thing."
The ceremony will mark the first time Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Cellucci have visited Gander since last Sept. 11.
Neither man's office would reveal their anniversary day itineraries, but sources said they expect the pair to travel together, possibly to New York City, where several memorial events are planned. Both are also expected at an event in Ottawa later in the day.
© Copyright 2002 National Post
I knew there had to be a down side.
But please don't forget that many cities across Canada also took care of stranded passengers on 9-11.
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