Over the Edge » September 21

A DECADE SINCE 9/11

It's been 10 years since the attacks of September {I

HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR

Sunday September 11th
marked the 10 year anniversary of the
9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and
Pennsylvania. Everyone can recall that
morning ten years ago when 19 men
hijacked four aircrafts on a suicide
mission to destroy the two World
Trade Centre towers in New York and
the Pentagon in Pennsylvania. The
images of the planes crashing into the
towers and the structures falling down
into the streets of New York are all too
familiar. The hijackers were mostly
highly educated men from Saudi
Arabia. They managed to commandeer
the aircrafts while aboard and slammed
them into the World Trade Centre
and the Pentagon. The fourth aircraft
crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

2, 977 people were killed in
the attacks. The numbers of people
indirectly affected by the 9/11 attacks
can of course never be calculated.
The consequences of the 9/11 attacks
have permanently altered international
relations, our perceptions of security
and safety, and incited a desire for
military presence in the middle east.
Terrorism became a household word
and a concept that children have
since grown up with. Soldiers in
their twenties fighting the wars in the
middle east would have only been
children when the attacks occurred
and the US invaded Afghanistan and
not any older when a year and a half
later the U.S. invaded Iraq. It is not
an understatement to say that the 9/11
attacks changed the world.

The victims of the attacks
were from over 90 countries. 24 of
them were Canadians. Ceremonies
took place all over North America but
the most notable ones understandably
were held at Ground Zero in New York
where the towers once stood and in
Pennsylvania where the plane crashed

into the Pentagon. A 9/11 memorial
site was unveiled at Ground Zero
during the New York ceremonies. The
memorial features two large square
reflecting pools which are located
exactly where the two towers used
to stand. Nearly 3,000 names of the
victims are inscribed in the bronze
work of the memorial. The ceremonies
on Sunday September 11th in New
York began with a procession of
bagpipers. President Barack Obama
read from Psalm 46 and 334 friends
and family members read all of the
names of those killed in the tragedy.

Ceremonies also took place in
Canada. One notable memorial service
occurred in Gander Newfoundland.
After the attacks ten years ago air
traffic was immediately grounded.
6,700 air travellers were stranded in
the tiny town of Gander Newfoundland
which only has a small population of
nearly 10,000. However, the citizens
of the small town stepped up and
welcomed the passengers into their
homes and housed others in the public
buildings such as the school. The
citizens provided the travellers with
food and bedding four three days while
the North American airspace was shut
down. The small towns kindness was
not forgotten and a special ceremony
took place in the Gander Hockey
arena. U.S. Ambassador David
Jacobson was a key speaker at the
memorial ceremony held at the towns
hockey rink. Two steel girders from
the World Trade Centre were presented
by a New York City firefighter to thank
the town for its hospitality. Jacobson
reminisced about the tireless efforts of
towns residents and the surrounding
communities.

Stephen Harper was in
attendance at the Ground Zero
ceremonies in New York. He had also

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ONLINE SOURCE

formally designated September 11
a national day of service to honour
both the victims of that day and the
Canadian communities who aided
stranded travellers in a time of need.
“While Canadians share in the grief
of all those mourning loved ones lost
we also honour the incredible acts
of courage sacrifice and kindness by
those who served the rescue efforts,”
Harper said in a statement released
Sunday September 11. U.S. President
Barack Obama had also sent a letter to
Prime Minister Harper acknowledging
Canada’s contribution during the
immediate aftermath of the attacks.
“We remember with gratitude and
affection how the people of Canada
offered us the comfort of friendship
and extraordinary assistance that day
and the following days by opening
their airports, homes, and hearts to us,”
Obama wrote.

It was a somber day in the U.S.
as America remembered an attack that
shook the country to its very core.
Many people from around the world
can pinpoint exactly where they were
when they first heard of the attacks
or saw the live news coverage of the
destruction at ground zero. People
remember not only because of the sheer
shock and tragedy of the attacks but
also because the world shifted that day
into a place where terrorism became
both a terrifying reality and an all too
easy scapegoat. Terrorism became
the excuse not only for war, but for
imprisoning citizens of other countries
in Guantanamo Bay without trial, and
a decade of discrimination against
muslim communities. Ten years on
and the aftermath of the attacks is still
a definitive characteristic of present
day reality.

BC UNIVERSITY
PRESIDENTS
UNITE TO BETTER
FINANCIAL AID

~_ Top 4univeristy administrators call

for lower interest rates

KENDRA WONG
THE PEAK

In an attempt to increase the
financial assistance available to post-
secondary students, B.C. university
administrations called upon the pro-
vincial government Sept. 8 to bring
student loan interest rates in line with
other provinces.

Four presidents from the Re-
search Universities’ Council of British
Columbia, including Andrew Petter
of Simon Fraser University, Stephen
Toope of the University of British

institutions and that providing attrac-
tive financial assistance is necessary
if B.C. is planning on reaching out to
under-represented groups.

“If we’re going to be seri-
ous — as the province says we
should [be] — about reaching out to
under-presented groups like indig-
enous people, the disabled community,
socio-economically challenged areas,
and ethnic populations, the current re-
sources we have, and the government

Currently, B.C.’s interest rates sit at 2.5 per cent above prime —
effectively the highest in Canada.

Columbia, David Turpin of the Uni-
versity of Victoria and George Iwama
of the University of Northern British
Columbia raised concerns about the
province’s skyrocketing interest rates
on student loans.

Currently, B.C.’s interest
rates sit at 2.5 per cent above prime —
effectively the highest in Canada. Col-
lectively, the four universities spend
approximately $120 million in finan-
cial aid a year for students, which they
claim is not enough.

The presidents argue that in-
terest rates may force students to think
twice before attending post-secondary

has, on the table are just not going to
be adequate to do that,” Petter told the
Vancouver Sun.

The presidents also drew at-

tention to the work of other provincial
governments such as Newfoundland
and Labrador, which eliminated inter-
est rates on student loans in 2009.
The universities have since submitted
recommendations to the B.C. Ministry
of Advanced Education, which is in
the process of a review.

According to Minister of
Advanced Education Naomi Yama-
moto, the ministry is conducting a re-
view of the current financial assistance