At the time, it was the end of the world as we knew it.
Sept. 11. 2001, was the day “everything changed,” when the things we took for granted especially our sense of security in North America – were dealt a brutal blow.
True enough for the United States, of course. But did 9/11 change anything in the lives of ordinary Canadians. including Montrealers? Did we escape unscathed?
Not quite. Over the past year our lives have been altered in a myriad of ways, great and small:
- Our stock portfolios are worth less than before.
- Our insurance rates are rising.
- More security cameras are watching us.
- It takes longer to board a flight.
- Our hotels aren’t as full.
- Twice as many refugees are in detention – including – children.
- Nuclear-power stations are on heightened alert.
- U.S. Customs officers help staff our ports.
- We’re taking advice from U.S. disaster experts.
So much for any illusions about being insulated from catastrophe.
The terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre and part of the Pentagon weren’t simply something that happened “next door.” a fire in the neighbours’ house. A pall was cast over the 49th parallel, too.
The fire jumped the fence, and the damage and the costs are part of our own reality in this city as in others across the country.
“We’ve changed in a lot of ways.” Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay said. “Social issues are becoming more and more visible. When we talk about homelessness, prostitution, poverty, we realize we need to concentrate on creating a better society for everyone.”
“I think there’s a new mind-set for people here.”
Here are some of the more practical ways 9/11 has been felt here at home:
Emergency plans: Since its merger into a megacity last fall, the city of Montreal has spent $9.5 million to be better prepared for emergencies – just the beginning of $100 million in changes over the next five years. Communications have also been upgraded, more disaster simulations are getting under way, the radio network linking Montreal police, fire and ambulance services is being upgraded, firefighters are forming the city’s first urban search-and-rescue crew and also have two new trucks with gear to decontaminate hundreds of people at a time, and the police have new chemical-resistant protective equipment and devices to detect bombs and dispose of suspicious packages.
Along with the RCMP and Sûtreté du Québec, the police say they’re more attuned now to the terrorist threat and the possibility of what they call “provoked catastrophes.” As for all the new measures, “if we’d done that before Sept. 11, people would have said it was an unnecessary expense, but not any more,” said Montreal Police Commander André Durocher.
“YOU SEE GROUND ZERO AND YOU REALIZE HOW VULNERABLE WE ALL ARE.”
The port: Last March, the Port of Montreal was blasted by a Canadian Senate committee as a funnel for drugs and a haven of organized crime. The criticism remains, but now the port has gone on a PR offensive, vaunting its new-and-improved security measures – close to $2 million worth, begun before Sept. 11 but more than ever justified by it. There’s improved fencing and lighting, renovations and expansion of the Canada Customs inspection stations and offices, new access and identification cards issued to 3,000 stevedores, truck drivers and others, and a new presence: two U.S. Customs “targeters” working to help detect “high-risk” container cargo such as that shipped by infrequent users of the port. The port is far from secure, and like other Canadian ports it’s still easy for tourists (or reporters) to drive on and off with impunity, but officials say things are getting better. “We put in four more cameras,” said spokesman Michel Turgeon. “There were a few blind spots before.”
Nuclear power: Even for the 700 employees who work there, it’s harder now to get into Hydro-Quebec’s Gentilly 2 nuclear power station in Bécancour, near Trois-Rivières- A zigzag of concrete blocks leads vehicles to the front-gate security post, which is being expanded so that staff can meet guests there instead of inside the plant. All employees’ bags are searched when they go in. And the local health-services board is considering a plan to distribute potassium iodide pills to homes and businesses around the plant to protect them in case of a radioactive leak – whether caused by a terrorist attack or not.
Skyscrapers: Administrators of Montreal’s tall buildings and office/shopping complexes are figuring out better ways of planning for the worst and sometimes they’re going to the U.S. for advice. For example, when the people who run the 33-storey Tour Scotia on Sherbooke St. W, opposite McGill University, wanted to update its emergency evacuation procedures, they turned to an American “disaster planner,” Curtis Massey.
An ex-fire officer based in Virginia Beach, Va., Massey’s specialty is high-rises, including most of the tallest buildings in the United States such as the Empire State Building (another is the World Financial Centre complex in New York, opposite the WTC and damaged in the Sept. 11 attack). Firefighters use the customized floor plans he drafts to co-ordinate their efforts in the event of blaze; SWAT teams can also use them in the case of an attack or hostage-taking.
In the past year, Massey’s business has been booming, even in Canada. He’s developing plans for two other Montreal firms, Great West Life Insurance Co., in Place Bonaventure, and Oxford Quebec Properties Group Inc., whose buildings include Place du Canada and Place de la Cathédrale. “If you give people good information, they make good decisions.” he said.
At Tour Scotia, the extra preparedness is part of a post-9/11 reality: more security cameras, longer archiving of video records, more foot patrols.
Investments: Have you checked the value of your stock portfolio recently? Don’t just blame the losses on corporate corruption, the dot.com crash and normal cyclical patterns of investment values. It all began with the events of 9/11. The North American stock market lost 15 percent of its value in the aftermath of the attacks. It recovered temporarily but then really fell apart in March and April, said Montreal investment adviser Bassam Kadi of MacDougall, MacDougall, MacTier. A typical mutual fund is now worth anywhere from 10 to 25 percent less than it was a year ago. “Your portfolio would have been a lot higher if it hadn’t been for Sept. 11,” Kadi said.
Civil liberties: Refugees are now being detained in record numbers at Immigration Canada’s facility in Laval. “There were maybe 40 or 50 in there at a time a year ago; now there are more like 70 to 100,” said Glynis Williams, an activist with Action Réfugiés Montréal.
Under changes last June to Canada’s immigration law, officers at airports and border crossings are now using more of their power to lock claimants up before they’re given the benefit of the doubt, she said. “We see a lot of children coming to Laval now, too. There are 15 there now. A year ago there would have been only two or three.”
Insurance: According to the New York-based Insurance Information Institute, the 9/11 attacks cost the insurance industry more than any other event in history – at least $40 billion U.S. But the Insurance Bureau of Canada denies a link between the event and rising premiums for property and casualty insurance, which it says were either planned before Sept. 11 or were a result of normal market forces (insurance companies are making money faster now than at any time since 1986).
“YOUR PORTFOLIO WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT HIGHER IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR SEPT. 11.”
Same story for health and life insurance, where revenues from premiums also rose to record levels since Sept. 11. “We really don’t see any correlation between the increase in rates and the events of Sept. 11 — it’s just the normal course of business,” said Peter Fuchs, spokesman for Manulife Financial. The big Toronto-based insurer had revenues of $8 billion in the first six months of 2002, up $500 million from the first half of 2001 – mostly due to increased premiums and new contracts.
Tourism and business travel: Statistics Canada reports that, other than Americans, foreign visitors now spend half as much in this country as Canadians spend abroad. And among Americans, while vacation travel to Canada is up, business travel is down.
A good indicator of people’s reluctance to travel here is the depressed occupancy rates of Montreal’s 60 major hotels. For the first two weeks of September, hotels were planning on business being extremely quiet, with occupancy rates affected by a dearth of cross-border travel around the Sept. 11 anniversary. Hotels were filled to 67.9 percent in 2001, compared to 71.3 per cent in 2000. Although this summer was about as good as any other year, occupancy from January to July was 66.8 percent, down from 67.6 in 2001.
“Business is down by quite a bit,” said Bill Brown, executive vice-president of the Association des Hotels du Grand Montréal, “and we don’t like decreases at any time.”
Canadians are also taking fewer flights down to the States since Sept. 11 – about one-quarter fewer. StatsCan also reports. Instead, we’re hitting the highway for road trips, and one of the sentimental favourite destinations is New York City.
In August, for example, a flotilla of 20 big motorbikes with Quebec licence plates glided down the interstate to the Big Apple, their drivers wearing the colours of the Blue Knights, an international biker gang. They weren’t criminals. They were police officers, active and retired, from the Montreal police, the SQ, the RCMP and others. They’d been invited on the Blue Knights annual “Suicide Run” to New York.
They stayed three days and toured Ground Zero. Even for seasoned cops, it was a heavy trip.
“Emotionally, we’ve changed since 9/11,” said Ben Fusco, 51, a retired Montreal police commander who now works as an inspector for Canadian National Railways. “You see Ground Zero, which is just one big hole in the street, and you realize how vulnerable we all are – big cities, big police departments. If it happened there, it could happen here.”
Air travel: Vancouver International Airport is to start testing iris-scanning devices on travelers this fall, so that eventually frequent-fliers can jump queues by being instantly recognized. In Montreal, travelers through Dorval Airport are still being processed the hands-on way – literally.
To avoid problems arriving at foreign airports, some Canadian business travelers – especially those with Arabic names – are getting special pre-clearance from the governments of countries they’re headed to.
Beaconsfield garage repair shop owner Phil Bailey booked a flight back from England today, where he and his wife went to see their grandchild.
“We did it deliberately – there was plenty of space available,” Bailey said before he left. There is no chance of another attack, he said.
“I don’t think lightning will strike twice. I do think a plane is the safest place to be on Sept. 11. If it’s empty, that’s just fine by me.”
Jeff Heinrich’s E-mail address is jheinrich@thegazette.southam.ca