IN CANADA

Neighbor offers aid, tightens security

By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 9/12/2001

ONTREAL - As hundreds of aircraft bound for the United States were diverted to Canadian airports and Canadian authorities tightened security as an emergency measure, horrified citizens across the northern land that considers itself America's best friend rushed to donate blood for victims of yesterday's attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

Hospitals in Toronto and other Canadian centers also prepared for a possible influx of attack victims. And emergency hot lines were established for the huge numbers of Canadians who frantically tried to reach relatives, friends, or business associates in the United States.

Toronto's 1,815-foot CN Tower, the world's tallest structure, and other popular landmarks were closed as Canadian officials boosted security in several major cities. Churches were thronged by ordinary Canadians who paused to pray for their neighbor.

A grim Prime Minister Jean Chretien pledged his country would provide whatever assistance is necessary and condemned what he termed ''a cowardly and depraved attack'' on Canada's closest ally.

Every commercial airport in Canada was ordered closed. Their runways served as diversion points for more than 500 passenger and cargo craft that originally set out for US destinations from Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Within two hours of the attacks, Canada had transformed itself into a sort of emergency runway for the entire continent.

Thousands of travelers were forced to remain aboard stranded jumbo planes or in terminals last night as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police conducted exhaustive searches of the aircraft and baggage, and closely questioned each passenger. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, where about 50 European and US flights were forced to land, travelers were shuttled to sports facilities converted into temporary shelters and interrogation centers.

Canadian CF-18 fighter jets, meanwhile, escorted a Korean Airlines passenger plane into Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, after it was refused permission to land in Alaska and was running low on fuel.

Meanwhile, Canadian investigative teams - working with the FBI - probed the possibility that individuals involved in the deadly assaults in the United States might have links to terrorist cells that authorities believe to be active in Montreal and Toronto.

Although law enforcement sources stressed that there is no evidence so far of a Canadian connection, police remember 1999's ''millennium'' bomb plot - in which Islamic radicals tied to Osama bin Laden used Quebec and British Columbia as staging grounds for planned attacks against US targets. Those plans were thwarted after an Algerian national named Ahmed Ressam was caught by US authorities carrying explosives across the border.

The world's longest undefended border remained opened yesterday, but delays stretched for hours at the busiest points and US immigration officials were generally permitting only American citizens and Canadians with urgent business to cross.

Travelers were questioned closely on both sides of the line and nearly every vehicle entering the United States was subjected to a close search, a highly unusual procedure especially when carried out along the 5,525-mile border.

In Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, British Columbia, hospitals prepared emergency wards and surgical teams in anticipation of an overflow of patients from the United States.

''It's a precautionary measure, we don't know for certain if Canada will handle patients,'' said Craig Duhamel, spokesman for Toronto's Sunnybrook & Women's Health Sciences Center, a top teaching hospital. ''But we want to be prepared to help our neighbor any way we possibly can.''

Canadians were nearly as shocked by yesterday's attacks as Americans themselves. The two nations are deeply intertwined by blood kinship and business - there are probably few Canadians without a close relative or friend living in the United States.

The Canadian Consulate in New York City was investigating the likelihood that some Canadians were victims of the World Trade Center attacks.

At Montreal's Dorval Airport, travelers who found themselves stranded in Quebec remained somber.

''How can I complain? I am alive amid a national calamity,'' said Daniel Lepage, 76, who had been headed home to Boston after visiting relatives in Quebec. His flight was canceled. ''This is a dark and terrible day.''

Canadians reacted in disbelief and horror at the events unfolding next door. ''This is not terrorism, this is war,'' said Peter Mansbridge, the highly respected anchorman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's national news network, which joined other major television and radio stations in providing nonstop broadcasts about the attacks.

The most common reaction among Canadians was empathy for their stricken neighbor. A teller at a Bank of Montreal branch, upon recognizing her customer as a US citizen, wiped tears from her eyes and blurted, ''God bless the poor Americans. We are praying for you.''

This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 9/12/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.