9-11 remembered

Thunder Bay police and firefighters took a moment of silence to remember the thousands that died a decade ago on Sept. 11, 2001.

Thunder Bay Police Service officers and the Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue held a memorial service for the victims of 9-11 at Boulevard Lake. Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York City that took the lives of thousands of people -- 26 of those killed were Canadian.

Fire chief John Hay said the ceremony was important to ensure that all the members remembered the losses of that day as well as honour the men and women who ran into the chaos to try to save lives.  

Hay said there have been many lessons learned over the years since the attack. Communication between departments has improved and everyone has become stronger, smarter and better prepared to handle situations like what happened 10 years ago.

“Some of the lessons learned from 9-11 have been incorporated across North America,” Hay said. “It’s unfortunate that most of the improvements in our world come as of a result of someone being killed. We take that very seriously and the best way to honour those people is to do better in our craft. You always have to find something good with terrible events and we’re better than we were 10 years ago.”

Thunder Bay police Chief J.P. Levesque said the world had changed. The memory that stuck with him the most during that day was all the first response workers running towards the collapsing towers as hundreds fled.

“It’s hard to believe that it has been 10 years,” Levesque said. “It started out as a normal day and then it all changed and the world changed forever. Obviously, we have become more cognizant of security measures and terrorism in general. We live in a more security conscious world and that’s never going to change.”

The terrorist organization al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks and for years military forces around the world searched for the group’s leader Osama bin Laden. The search ended on May 2, 2011 when an American special forces unit stormed a compound in Pakistan.

Levesque said he wasn’t sure what kind impact bin Laden’s death that had on the public but was sure that the public’s fear of terrorism wasn’t subsided.

“I don’t know what the families of the 3,000 people that died are thinking but I suspect some of them have some level of vengeance,” he said. “I assume they would be pleased about it but it doesn’t close the whole book on (terrorism).”