Events in New York hit Canada on Sept. 11

Events in the rest of the world can have an impact on Canada, and the events of September 11, 2001 changed the entire world. When two planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virgina, and a field in Pennsylvania, it was something that shook the entire world and changed the course of history.

Yorkton responded with a memorial service a week after the attacks at St. Andrew’s Church. Captain Andrew Brown of the Yorkton Salvation Army said that the memorial service was a gesture of solidarity. 

“This is a chance to stop and say to the Americans, ‘we’re with you.’ Whether it be in Ottawa or Yorkton this gives people the opportunity to do something about it.”

The memorial service brought out many members of Yorkton’s emergency services, who reflected on the loss of the first responders in New York at the time. 

“When the phone rings we have a job to do whatever it may be,” said Greg Litvanyi, attending the memorial service as a member of the fire department. “It’s something that none of us in this career ever hope to do, but that is just the nature of that job.” 

Litvanyi said that in the same situation, Yorkton’s first responders would have done the same thing, and Staff Sgt. Bill Martin of the Yorkton RCMP reflected that view.

“I know that the firefighters, the police officers and paramedics in Yorkton would have done no less.”

Residents of the city were also encouraged to donate to the Red Cross in order to help with relief efforts in New York. The Canadian Red Cross was collecting donations to help people with food, shelter and clothing, as well as providing support to those who lost family members. They were also providing personal care kits to stranded passengers as flights were cancelled.

Yorkton’s schools at the time were the victim of their own threat, though this one was a hoax. A bomb threat was called in to the Yorkton Regional High School, and principal Dave Baron suspected that the terrorist attacks south of the border played a role in the hoax.

“We believe it was not a coincidence this happened a day after those events.”

At 1:35 p.m. on September 12, a young male voice said there were two bombs in the school set to explode at 2:00 p.m. The school was quickly evacuated and searched, and it was discovered that no bombs were within the school itself. School administration praised the RCMP and the school’s emergency planning for making the evacuation happen quickly and without incident, within 3-4 mintues.

On the lighter side, the big trend in computing was the newfound ability to burn your own CDs. Staples was selling a Compaq Presario for $949, which had 128 MB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive. It also featured a 56k modem. Approximately the same money at Staples today will get you 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB hard drive - approximately 63 times more RAM, and 25 times more storage space. Other parts of the machine, such as processing power, are difficult to compare directly – the older machine has a 900 mhz processor, the new one a 3.5 ghz processer, but the new one also has six processing cores – but the power increase is significant to put it mildly. The computer referenced here, a CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra, can even burn CDs, though that feature is hidden in the specifications, and no longer a headline.