I realize Gordon Sinclair report was some 45 years ago but Canada DID help the US during 911.
How Canada helped America’s during 911
With U.S. airspace closed, Canada welcomed 224 international flights that day. The majority of planes were already in Atlantic Canada and landed in the Maritimes – away from any major American cities. Canada's efforts that day became known as Operation Yellow Ribbon.
Canada's military took control of the skies, implementing the Emergency Security Control of Air Traffic Plan, something usually reserved for times of war. As these measures were being imposed, some 500 airplanes from around the world were en route to the United States
Planes with enough fuel were told to return to their airport of origin, and the rest were diverted to airports across Canada. Fearing the attacks may not be over and worried that other planes could be turned into “destructive missiles,” Transport Canada instructed NAV CANADA (the agency that handles air traffic control) not to redirect planes to large urban areas, such as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
Over the next few hours after the attacks, these 224 planes carrying over 33,000 passengers landed in Canada. Flights originating from Asia were diverted to Vancouver and other airports in western Canada, while planes on the busy transatlantic route were diverted to airports in Atlantic Canada.
Halifax International Airport received the largest number of flights (47 planes carrying more than 7,000 passengers), while Vancouver International Airport received the highest number of passengers (34 planes carrying 8,500 passengers).
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Dealing with thousands of unexpected visitors proved to be a major challenge. With security concerns paramount, each plane had to be searched and every passenger screened. Some were forced to remain on the tarmac at various airports for more than 24 hours. Once screened, the passengers needed to be housed and fed. Local officials, charitable organizations and volunteers scrambled to find schools and community halls, beds and blankets, and food and coffee for thousands of stranded passengers.
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Nowhere was that challenge greater than in Gander, Newfoundland, where 37 flights were diverted to the town’s airport. The community of less than 10,000 people suddenly had to find shelter and food for 6,700 people. School bus drivers who were on strike left their picket lines in order to provide transportation to area schools and halls. Medical prescriptions were filled by pharmacies at no cost, and people opened their homes to passengers in need of a coffee or a shower.
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Alan Flood, of Bristol, England, who was stranded with his wife, Barbara, summed up the feelings of hundreds of passengers when he said, “We were strangers. They didn’t know what we were like. They took us to their homes, made sure we wanted for nothing, treated us as part of the family.”
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Shirley Brook-Jones and the passengers from her flight were cared for in the nearby community of Lewisporte, Newfoundland. On their flight home six days later, Brook-Jones suggested to passengers that they should start a scholarship for local students as a way to thank the community. By the time the plane landed in Atlanta, passengers had pledged $15,000. Word spread and the fund grew. By 2014, the fund had committed $1.5 million and awarded more than 130 scholarships to students in Newfoundland.
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On the 10th anniversary of the attacks, in 2011, US President Barack Obama said Americans “remember with gratitude and affection how the people of Canada offered us the comfort and friendship and extraordinary assistance that day and in the following days, by opening their airports, homes and hearts to us.”
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canada-and-911
n the days after the attacks, Canada joined a coalition of nations in the so-called “War on Terror.”
In October 2001, Canadian naval ships were dispatched to the Arabian Sea off southwest Asia to patrol the seas for vessels engaged in illegal activity.
In December 2001, commandos from Canada's elite Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) were sent to Afghanistan to join American, British and other international forces fighting the Taliban. More soldiers soon followed and Canada would stay in the region until 2014. By the time the operation ended, 40,000 Canadian Armed Forces members had served in Afghanistan and 158 soldiers had lost their lives.
The Canadian government enacted a number of new security measures to combat terrorism at home, increasing security at airports, ports and border crossings, as well as enacting new in-flight security rules for airlines.
In 2001, the Liberal government passed controversial legislation called the Anti-Terrorism Act. The law's "preventative arrest" provision allowed police to bring a person suspected of terrorist activity before a judge, who could curtail their freedom — for example, forbidding them from communicating with specific individuals. The law also created "investigative hearings" in which suspected terrorists who had not yet been charged with any crime could be compelled to testify at secret judicial hearings.
These two elements of the legislation had a sunset clause of five years; the rest of the Anti-Terrorism Act remained.
The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried four times to resurrect the two provisions, finally succeeding in 2013 with the Combating Terrorism Act. That law renewed preventative arrests and investigative hearings for five years. It also made it a crime to leave Canada to engage in terrorist activities and included stiffer penalties for harboring a person involved in terrorism.
911 - operation yellow ribbon - Gander Newfoundland
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9205986/
Gander Newfoundland almost took in more airplane passengers than the towns population
