Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was working from home at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa on September 11, 2001, when he learned of the plane crashes into the World Trade Center. Chrétien initially thought it was an accident caused by a pilot who didn't know what they were doing, but after the second plane hit, he and his aides watched CNN to assess the situation. According to the book "Ash and Honor" by Jeffrey Robinson, Chrétien attempted to phone President George Bush to express Canada's sympathy and support, but his aides advised against it, suggesting that the president was too busy. Chrétien ultimately spoke with the US ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, to convey a message of support, but acknowledged that there wasn't much Canada could do at the time.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-10,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, people around the world are reflecting on how their lives were changed by that day.
Colin McShane, whose father was a firefighter who died in the line of duty, remembers watching TV with his family as a child and trying to understand what was happening. He now wants to join the FDNY, following in his father's footsteps.
Meanwhile, Sue Riccardelli and her wife, Maureen Murray, are flying a flag outside their New Jersey home that honors the people of central Newfoundland who cared for them and over 6,500 other passengers after their planes were grounded in Gander, N.L. They plan to bring the flag to performances of "Come From Away," a musical about the stranded passengers and their hosts.
Many Americans are also still dealing with the physical and emotional toll of that day, including thousands of first responders who have died or become ill from working at ground zero. Mia Farina, a former police officer, was diagnosed with chronic lung disease related to her work in 2014.
In addition, anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobia persist 25 years after the attacks, with some politicians and pundits using stereotypes and misinformation to demonize Muslims and other minority groups. This has led to increased hate crimes and erosion of civil liberties.
As the country marks the anniversary of 9/11, many are reflecting on how their lives have changed since that day and how they can come together to support each other in the face of adversity.
Written for “Impact of the 9/11 Attacks” on 2026-09-10,
grounded in this article and the 60 other(s) covering the same event.
The book tells the story of the official response to 9/11 by North American authorities.
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book → tell → authorities
This excerpt, drawn from multiple chapters, focuses on senior Canadian officials.
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excerpt → draw → officials
Jean Chrétien, the 67-year-old Canadian prime minister who’d led his Liberal Party to a parliamentary victory in 1993, lived at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, Canada’s equivalent of the White House.
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who → lead → House
Built in 1866, the 35-room mansion was set on four acres in the fashionable New Edinburgh neighborhood, overlooking the Ottawa River.
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mansion → build → River
With Parliament in recess, and all of his ministers out of town, he was working from home that morning.
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he → work → home
Having suffered Bell’s palsy at the age of 12, making the left side of his face weaker than the right side, Chrétien spoke in a very distinct lopsided way out of the left side of his mouth, with a heavy accent in both French and English.
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Chrétien → suffer → French
It gave him a quality of being authentic, a tough, straightforward yet self-deprecating man who didn’t put on the airs of the intellectual lawyer and avid reader that he actually was.
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he → give → lawyer
For example, he dealt with President Clinton by playing golf.
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he → deal → golf
And he dealt with President Bush by talking about baseball.
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he → deal → baseball
Coming downstairs from the residence just before 8:30 a.m., he walked into the ground-floor living room to greet the new premier of Saskatchewan, Lorne Calvert.
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he → come → Saskatchewan
They’d never met and were scheduled to talk about farm aid.
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They → meet → aid
But after the usual pleasantries, their meeting was cut short by an aide coming into the room to tell Chrétien that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
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plane → cut → York
Like so many people that morning, Chrétien thought, it must have been a small plane flown by a pilot who didn’t know what he was doing.
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he → think → what
Then the second plane hit.
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plane → hit → ?
Calvert made his exit and Chrétien went to his ground-floor office to assess the situation.
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Chrétien → make → situation
He and his aides sat and watched CNN, until he decided he was going to phone George Bush to express Canada’s sympathy and support.
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he → sit → sympathy
His aides talked him out of it.
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aides → talk → it
They convinced Chrétien there would be time for that tomorrow.
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They → convince → that
Right now, they said, the president is busy.
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president → say → ?
Your call will only get in the way.
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call → get → way
Chrétien agreed and, instead, tried to reach the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci.
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Chrétien → agree → Canada
He’d been governor of Massachusetts when George Bush sent him to Ottawa.
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Bush → send → Ottawa
But that morning, Cellucci was on a plane heading back to Ottawa from Winnipeg.
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Cellucci → head → Winnipeg
The prime minister eventually got the deputy chief of mission on the phone and assured him that Canada was prepared to do whatever needed to be done.
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whatever → get → him
When they hung up, Chrétien admitted that while the offer stood, there actually wasn’t much Canada could do.
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Canada → hang → ?
Little did he know.
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he → know → ?
Reaching his cabinet wasn’t easy.
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Reaching → reach → cabinet
They were spread out across the country, with some outside the country, in an era when email and smartphones weren’t plentiful.
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email → spread → era
Chrétien and his staff had mobile phones, clumsy early versions that, they often complained, didn’t work very well.
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they → have → phones
So for the rest of the morning they stayed where they were, contacting the few people they could while watching on television as events unfolded in the States.
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events → stay → States
They kept trying to convince Chrétien to leave the residence and go to a safer place.
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They → keep → place
Chrétien refused.
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Chrétien → refuse → ?
They tried again a little while later.
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They → try → ?
He refused a second time, and then a third.
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He → refuse → ?
The Mounties pressed him whenever they could, genuinely concerned that he might not be safe.
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he → press → him
After all, no one knew if the terrorists were heading north of the border.
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terrorists → know → border
What Chrétien didn’t mention to his security detail, or anyone else at the time, was that he worried about the same thing.
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he → mention → thing
One terrorist in particular concerned him greatly.
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terrorist → concern → him
Now he began phoning everyone he could think of to ask if anyone knew about any possible ties between the terrorists in New York and the one that worried him, Ahmed Ressam.
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that → begin → him
If it turned out that Ressam had somehow been involved, this would not just be Jean Chrétien’s worst nightmare, it could be Canada’s as well.
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it → turn → ?
…and 206 more, not listed.
