TORONTO—The anniversary of Sept. 11 was marked in cities across Canada, both to remember those Canadians that died and the tragedy that befell their closest neighbor 10 years ago.
Several events were held throughout the Greater Toronto Area, including tributes to the fallen emergency workers.
Toronto Emergency Services hosted a 21-gun salute in tribute of emergency workers who died.
The town of Markham, a satellite of Toronto held similar events, as did the city of Mississauga.
In Ottawa, the nation’s capital, a Hope and Remembrance Concert was hosted by the National Arts Centre to mark the attacks in New York, Washington, and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
The open-air symphony concert aimed to “honor every person affected on that terrible day, including all military and civilian personnel who have displayed great courage over the past decade,” noted the organizers website.
In Gander, a small airport town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, marked the day by remembering how a decade before, nearly 7,000 stranded passengers, rerouted from airports in the United States, found food and hospitality from the kitchens and homes of the people there.
Some of those stranded passengers returned for a visit to mark the occasion, reported PostMedia News.
Airports in several Canadian cities, including Calgary, Halifax, and Toronto received a plaque as a mark of gratitude from various U.S. diplomats in thanks for the many cities that opened their airports and homes to diverted planes and their passengers.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper marked the day at a ceremony in Hanover Square in New York City, where the British Garden commemorating U.K.’s 9/11 victims will now honor the 24 Canadians who also died that day.
“It is fitting that the Canadians who perished on 9/11 should be remembered here, alongside the Britons, Australians, and other Commonwealth citizens who were also killed in that atrocity,” Harper said.
Harper noted the day will be remembered and honored for something good as well.
“We are pleased to have designated this day in Canada as a National Day of Service. Just as Canadians welcomed American travelers grounded on that terrible day, just as both countries remember still these simple acts of decency, let us take this solemn anniversary as an inspiration to serve selflessly to do good for those around us. In the shadow of the evil of September 11th, 2001, we must not forget our capacity for goodness, and our knowledge of what is right, which is written in the hearts of all men.”
