9/11 Ten Years Later

By Bill Gay

Canada is not a pacifist nation. We are a peace loving people but will not stand idly by when our rights and freedoms, or those of our friends are threatened. As you drive into London on highway two you'll see a stone cairn called Battle Hill 1814, marking the grim locale where British redcoats, Canadian militia and His Majesty's Indian allies engaged the United States Army. Twelve men of the Royal Scots Regiment and 89th Light Company were killed and 52 men of these companies and the Kent irregulars were wounded. The first weekend in May of each year, re-enactors from both sides commemorate this brief but bloody encounter. When we mark Remembrance Day in November this year, it is not only for those who served their nation in long ago battles, but the realization that Canada is at war today, half way around the world in a primitive country that unfortunately became home to those who wish to see our way of life destroyed, and indeed planned the infamy of 9/11.

Few Canadians know our forces are represented in over 30 locations worldwide all with the common denominator that here life is cheap and swift death common. Just as previous generators fought the horrors of Nazi Germany until the evil was no more, and more recently stand with the NATO coalition in Afghanistan and Libya. Canada was not found wanting. Squadrons of CF-18 fighters flew almost 500 missions to bring an end to the dictator Gaddafi. But it was a Canadian officer that called off an air raid when Gaddafi took refuge in a hospital. He said we are here to help these people, not to hurt them. Yet the war goes on a more die no matter what precautions are taken. I saw on television comments by a Windsor nurse who plans to leave her position here to serve in Afghanistan. "I feel it is my duty".

Last week the President of the United Stations Barak Obama gave a stirring address to a joint session of Congress about the state of the American economy. Obama is, without doubt one of the premier orators of his generation. Yet when the talking heads appeared with post speech analysis, the venom showed through. I was deeply impresses by his assertion that it was wrong to ask the men and women of the military to stop their life here at home for months and years, and return to a country where there is no work for them. I recall the G.I. Bill that paid for advanced education for returning personnel after the Second World War. The people who benefitted from this legislation help spur the United States into the most prolonged period of economic growth in history.

With 9/11 ten years in the past, are we more secure, with billions of dollars spent in the United States and Canada to obviate the terrorist threat? Unfortunately, even with the death of many El Quaeda leaders, in particular their leader, Bin Laden, the bad guys are still out there. The extreme security measures at our borders throw in our face the long claim in both nations that he have the worlds longest undefended border in the world.

Our border economy that sent Americans to attractions in Windsor and Essex County (especially Leamington) and Canadians to the Detroit area can be to involve oneself in long delays at the border. When CAW 444 President Rick LaPorte suffered a severe heart attacked, a US customers officer stopped the ambulance at the border, this, despite the fact Windsor Police had phone ahead to advise of the emergency. Can you imagine the outcry if it had happened the other way around? So despite the fact that the terrorists have suffered mightily, they have caused us to change our way of living. But are we safer today than 10 years ago? Despite the claims of uniformed American elected officials, our country has become very security minded, for instance, the apprehending of a dozen terrorist operatives in Toronto a few years ago. Canadians are a resilient people, a people who stand with our allies. Who will forget the people of Gander Newfoundland who took in 7000 passengers from US airlines on 9/11 when the President grounded all flights as a security measure? This act alone put Canada as a benevolent ally on news programs across that country. Remember the huge sign in 1980 at the Ambassador Bridge that read "Thanks Canada", after American diplomatic personnel where hidden in our embassy in the turbulence of the Iranian Islamic revolution? (John Sheardown, the Canadian charge d'affaires in Tehran was from Windsor. I had the pleasure to meeting both him, and the Ambassador Ken Taylor some months later.)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proclaimed a National Day of Service to honour the Canadians, military and civilian for their service on 9/11 and after. How appropriate!