by Tod Maffin
Follow me on Hey.Cafe, Eh!, Gander, and elsewhere
▶️ All my videos • 👾 Join My Discord
Every five or ten years or so, reporters descend on the town I'm in this week: Gander, Newfoundland.
The reporters come because on September 11th, 25 years ago, Gander was where 38 planes landed, forced down when the American airspace closed. The people in those planes were stuck here for four days. You may know the story. You may know the musical.
I've been a news reporter before. I've been one of those reporters sent to a disaster or a tragedy to interview the people, put them on a pedestal for a night, maybe say something clever about ingenuity.
It's always bugged me a little, the way the regular media treat stories like this. The people who live here, who live in any community that touches tragedy, they're not circus animals. They're just decent people who did what many of us would do.
Last night, I invited some Gander folks to hang out. I didn't record it.
But I asked them: what do we get wrong about your story, about Gander on 9/11?
And you might think they'd say, "Well, the ice rink wasn't really used that way," or "They actually all had cots on the second night."
But they all said the same thing: “It wasn't just Gander.”
Gander got the headlines because it's a small town. Its population almost doubled when the plane people came. But just as Gander supported the plane people, the communities around Gander supported the town that day. Glenwood. Benton. Gambo. Grand Falls-Windsor. Lewisporte. Towns most Canadians couldn't find on a map.
I asked one woman tonight if she thought those four days changed Newfoundland, changed Canada. She got this really weird look on her face and said, "We didn't do anything special. We just didn't do nothing."
Gander wasn't a one-time Hallmark story created by a terrorist attack. The cameras just happened to be pointed at them that day, catching them doing the thing they already do.
That's the thing about Canada. Even in the worst of times — especially in the worst of times — we don't give up on our neighbours. Alberta took 19 planes. Vancouver, 36. Halifax, 40. Whitehorse, Winnipeg, Toronto. They all did.
I've seen the musical Come From Away twice now. It's really good. You should see it. It's actually playing here in town until September 13th. (You can leave New York City at 10 a.m. and be here before five that night, I'm just saying.)
We're damned proud of Newfoundland in this country.
Just as we are the Nova Scotia communities that welcomed Black refugees escaping slavery.
Saskatchewan that welcomed the Doukhobors escaping Russian persecution.
Fredericton that welcomed Kosovars escaping ethnic cleansing.
And communities across this country that are today welcoming American healthcare workers escaping fascism.
So maybe you'll see Gander on TV in the next few weeks. The reporters will interview the same folks they always do, they'll say the same clever things about salt-of-the-earth people, all of which is true. And then they'll go back, back to the mainland, back to the states, to chase the next story.
And towns like Gander? They'll go back to being towns.
Waiting for the next time someone needs a place to land.
Trivia
Which famous aviator made a historic transatlantic flight that stopped at Gander in 1932?
— 30 —
Join the discussion about this issue in Tod’s Clubhouse!
(Or join my Discord.)
The Weekly Poll
Do you think Gander's story is primarily a story about Newfoundland or about Canada?
Last Week:
The Funny Bone
Canadian citizenship processing now 2+ years behind
by Greg Kearney; used under licence.
What You Missed This Week
The Good News ♥️
A girl from Melville, SK, has raised $8,000 and counting for two injured RCMP officers by selling homemade friendship bracelets.
A 15-year-old boy helped save the life of a shark that had washed ashore near his home in Maces Bay, NB.
A boy in Gordon’s Head, BC, is once again running his annual Lemonade stand fundraiser to raise money for the Victoria Hospitals Foundation, in honour of his late father.
Rachel Reid, the author whose romance books inspired the wildly popular “Heated Rivalry” TV series, has donated $300,000 to financially challenged libraries in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.
SCIENCE!!!!!! 🔭
Endangered monarch butterfly populations are booming amid a wet, hot summer on the Prairies.
A Stanford University PhD student wants to challenge the idea that white sharks are mindless predators — and she’s using technology developed by a company in Victoria, BC, to do it.
A Saskatchewan company is drilling for hydrogen and trying to prove it can be extracted from the ground at a commercial scale instead of being produced from fossil fuels.
A farm in Ontario is using bee-beds for relaxation therapy.
Melanoma Canada CEO Falyn Katz feels positive about the results of an mRNA melanoma vaccine that hit the goals set in a late-stage trial.
The First Peoples 🪶
Floor-length earrings were impossible to miss at Opaskwayak Indigenous Day's first-ever big auntie earring contest.
Indigenous golfer Craig Stefureak has made history by winning back-to-back Canadian PGA Championships after shooting a course-record 61.
Calgary youth took part in a three-day bow-making workshop, learning the craft from Indigenous elders in Kananaskis Country.
Métis artist Bonnie Saunders has contributed to the Royal Canadian Legion’s 100th anniversary with a special piece that reflects the national organization’s dedication to service, sacrifice, advocacy and community.
The federal government still can’t locate 111 Indigenous artworks missing from its collection — nearly two years after an internal audit found it couldn’t account for 132.
Canadian Content 🍁
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Tragically Hip’s moving and unforgettable final show, the band will release a live album titled Live July 22 – August 20, 2016.
The Tragically Hip’s final performance will be rebroadcast on CBC on Saturday, August 22 at 7 pm local.
Somali-Canadian writer Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali's latest novel, Edgelands, explores what it means to live life on the margins.
The Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy Festival will take place in Winnipeg, MB, on August 28 and 29.
Wild Things 🐻❄️
A one-year-old male grizzly bear escaped its enclosure at the Wilder Institute’s Calgary Zoo. The grizzly bear was immobilized and is doing fine; no humans or animals were injured.
Golden Retrievers from across Canada and the US put their best paws forward for the Golden Retriever National in St.Paul, Manitoba.
32 orphaned and injured raccoon kits have been given a second chance by the SPCA’s Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre in Metchosin, BC.
Snowshoe hares appear to be more common across Prince Edward Island in the years since tropical storm Fiona, says a provincial wildlife biologist.
Orca whales were spotted in Victoria's Inner Harbour.
Across Canada 📍
A 12-year-old from Edmonton, AB, has been travelling the globe playing competitive Pokémon. The young competitor is now heading to San Francisco to play in the World Finals.
A new report says the average wait time for patients in Quebec’s emergency rooms has gone down by 11 minutes.
University of Toronto, McGill, and the University of British Columbia have ranked among the top 100 universities in the world.
Sports 🏒
A team of breast cancer survivors from Southern Ontario is representing Canada at a Dragon Boat festival in France.
The Canadian women’s team won the IFAF Women’s Flag Football World Championship in Germany.
The Winnipeg Sea Bears are the Canadian Elite Basketball League champions for the first time after defeating the Brampton Honey Badgers 98-84.
The Toronto Tempo, the WNBA’s only Canadian team, unveiled their new mascots, one of whom is non-binary.
Made in Canada
Mernini is a Newfoundland-born rainwear brand founded by Maria Halfyard in 2020. Growing up in Newfoundland, Halfyard knew first-hand how tough the province’s wind and rain could be, but she struggled to find women’s raincoats that were both practical and stylish. She started designing her own, initially working from her basement, with the goal of creating full-length waterproof coats that could protect an entire outfit without looking like traditional outdoor gear.
The name Mernini comes from Halfyard’s childhood nickname. The brand also embraces its Newfoundland roots, incorporating local materials and the province’s rugged landscape into its identity. What began as a small homegrown project has since expanded across Canada, with retailers including Simons carrying the line. Mernini remains a niche player, but its distinctly Canadian story and fashion-focused approach have helped it stand out.
This is not sponsored. This brand learned we profiled them the same time you did.
In partnership with
