The Race To Build Superintelligence

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we use that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong."

Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic

 

"Many of the people I know who work on safety research at AI companies want to do what is right for the world."

"But they feel their companies are trapped in a race to build superintelligence: either they stop and other, less conscientious people take their place; or, they continue, and risk participating in enormous harm themselves."

Joe Benton, former Anthropic employee

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, is shown in San Francisco in November 2024. On Saturday, he warned that AI could be capable within six to 12 months of leading a swarm that could take over the entire internet. (Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press)

 

Within six to 12 months, warns Anthropic's CEO, artificial intelligence could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could conceivably empower itself to control the entire internet, in the absence of the AI industry slowing down its swift development agendas to enable safety features to catch up with that runaway development. Concerns over AI continue to be magnified both within and without the industry as reports emerge of increasingly powerful systems capable of solving problems beyond human capacity.

 

That these powerful systems will be capable of carrying out their own threateningly harmful schemes seems to have reached a general consensus both within and outside the industry. The level of concern is palpable; that the CEO of OpenAI, responsible for Chat GPT revealed in an interview that his company is prepared to wait a year before selling stock to investors on Wall Street, reflects its development constraint, due to its focus on safety. 

 

Anthropic, according to Dario Amodei, as a leading AI voice, posted a plan on his website to increase critical checks on the industry.  He believes that although Anthropic is engaged in undertaking checks itself, others would benefit from across the board coordination with the entire industry, along with global governments. The AI industry has been urged for years by watchdogs to exercise due caution by decelerating their advances in AI. 

"Go ahead."

"I don't see what you see in the lab. If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible."

"[But] stop pretending you need anyone else's permission [to make such moves]."

David Sacks, co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology  

Instagram

 

With the example of just how critical the situation is, that industry workers are resigning while accusing the companies they worked for, of acting irresponsibly by continuing to forge ahead despite safety concerns, the issue has gone well beyond mere cautious speculation of worst-case scenarios. The resignation last week by Jacob Coxon, expressing his frustration that both Anthropic and and Open AI "are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives", saw the industry snap to attention.

 

Suspicious activities by untrustworthy sources were blocked by Anthropic earlier last week, in efforts to use its AI models for malicious activity, including cyberattacks, surveillance and research leading to biological weapons. Several months back, the industry was shocked when OpenAI revealed that its AI system had hacked into another company in an "unprecedented cyber incident" undertaken on its own initiative.  

"They've kind of realized, their employees have realized, everyone has realized that they're building Skynet."

"And in winning the race to Skynet, nobody wins. Really, nobody."

"It's pretty much become clear to the world and even the AI companies that they're not really prepared to control the AI systems they're racing to create."

Anthony Aguirre, president/CEO, Future of Life Institute 

Two AI experts are warning that AI is getting too smart, too quickly. One former employee accuses Anthropic and OpenAI of 'gambling with our lives.' A current Anthropic safety executive said he thinks there's a ten per cent chance AI kills all humans within a decade. CBCNews

Quebec's Anglophone-Punishing Language Laws

"It was a nightmare. An existential crisis."

"We don't get it. We don't get that there was no dialogue from day one. ... It's really strange."

"I will not say that personally that's my vision of the world but I perfectly respect that a duly elected democratic government can act pretty much however they want."

"LaSalle cannot be depicted as the institution threatening French on the Island of Montreal."

"[While I support protecting the French language] ... I refuse that LaSalle be instrumentalized for small politics like that."

"The first question that came to my mind is which organization or family business can afford to pay such a fine." 

Claude Marchand, director-general, LaSalle College, Montreal

Claude Marchand, president and CEO of LaSalle College, says the private Montreal college has been slapped with hefty fines it can't afford. The college is challenging them in a civil suit in Quebec's Superior Court. (LCI Éducation/Diego Iñiguez /Petr Tanko)

 

"It's uncomfortable to live in a place that is always sending you messages, in big ways and small ways that you are not welcome."

"If you read a headline that stated 'Government Shuts Down School for Accepting Too Many Minority Students', we as Canadians would probably be shocked and wonder in what oppressive regime this school is being shut down."

Merwie Garzon, mother of second-year LaSalle student  

Successive governments of the Province of Quebec have tied themselves into legislative knots of anguish over their perceived alarm to the dominance of French-language usage, seeing threats in the presence of Quebec Anglophones' use of English. One law after another has been enacted over the years to diminish the presence of English in the province, and to promote the use of French. From public signage that must see French dominate and English printed in smaller letters, to demands that businesses use French-only identity names, to mandating that French only must be used in government offices, minority English-speakers' rights have been inevitably decimated.

 

The province's language charter was altered in 2022 to ensure that French would be the only language of communication between government agencies and Quebecers; "a common denominator in the public sphere", according to the governing Coalition Avenir Quebec.  English-speaking Quebecers quailed in horror at the thought that hospital interfaces with patients would be in French only, denying English citizens their basic rights under federal law. For the  upcoming October 5 election, all election material provided to voters is in French only.

 

As a private college, LaSalle and others like it were required to ensure that their graduating students have at least three French-taught courses, outside the core common French language instruction courses. A strict quota was placed on the number of students taking English courses to ensure that as specified in law, a set proportion of all college students -- no more than 11.7 to 18.7 percent -- be taught in English. No transition period was offered before financial penalties would be imposed on violators.

 

LaSalle College students call for resumption of classes, in Montreal on Aug. 27, 2026 (Arthur Henault, CityNews)

 

Under this strict regimen, without a period of adjustment LaSalle College realized a temporary, two-year 'administrative imbalance' (since resolved) where it exceeded its 2023-24 quota by 715 students, and 1,066 by the following year. This allowed the government to levy fines to an extent to which LaSalle College was unable to pay. School shut-down seemed imminent through bankruptcy. 

 

Quebec Superior court Justice Martin Castonguay on September 4, ordered the province to pay the school its allocated subsidies, allowing the new year's classes to proceed, while extending the school's creditor protection, ordering the parties to return to court. The sole creditor is the province. So the school was given brief breathing room so that classes could proceed for the year. The problem, however is not resolved -- with the school continuing to face punitive fines of $30 million for excessive Anglophone education.

 

The school's students responded in the only way they could, by rallying at the school before a last-ditch court appearance, holding signs declaring "Studying is a right, save our education/our future", and "Laissez-nous etudier". "They're tied up in knots", explained Merwie Garzon, mother of a student who is 'furious' at the provincial government's discrimination against a linguistic minority in 'calculated' methods to manoeuvre the college's closure, "actively trying to drive out Anglophones".

 

La Salle College  Photo: LaSalle website

 

There are 400 employees at the school. The Marchand family founded the private college in 1962. Claude Marchand has been responsible for running La Salle for 18 years. He was left wondering whether the government would ever return his calls, or respond to settlement offers, a dozen to date. On the school's website can be found the declaration that it "finds itself abandoned by the very organization with which it has collaborated for more than 67 years"; the province. 

 

Currently, LaSalle College has fewer students studying in English than ever before, and fewer in their diploma programs. Yet they are being fined into bankruptcy because their anglophone class numbers exceeded the government quota. No clarity was offered by the government, Mr. Marchand's appeals went unanswered; there had been no response from government when he informed them in 2021that the college needed a transition period.

 

On June 28, 2024 the school was fined $8,781,740, and $21,113,864 a year later. This year, LaSalle managed full compliance with the quota system, as it had the year before, successfully managing its own transition. Although no added debt occurred with penalties imposed the last two years, the debt of the previous two years swelled to $50 million, which would place the college into bankruptcy. The college, said Mr. Marchand, could manage $20 million, but the two fines would break it. 

"[The fines are a] clawback, [the government is also fining twice for the same student over the last two years]."

"We don't have more students in those [English-taught] programs than in 2019 which is the ultimate spirit of the law."

"We're fully compliant for next semester and we have a public mission to serve all [our] 5,000 students and we want to keep going."

Claude Marchand, La Salle College 

LaSalle College was fined $30 million by the Quebec government for enrolling too many students in English-language programs between 2023 and 2025. It also needs to repay $17.9 million in provincial subsidies. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

 

Canada, As Haven for Nazi War Criminals

"[The federal government had not met the] heavy onus [of showing that the release of additional information would harm Canada’s international relations]."

"A bald statement of ongoing 'tensions' between Canada and the United States is not a sufficient basis to refuse disclosure of very specific information related to efforts by the United States to resettle suspected Nazis and Nazi collaborators in Canada following World War II."

"[The decision to withhold the information was unreasonable and the records must now be disclosed]."

"[The study written for the Deschenes Commission concluded] inadequate security screening led to many perpetrators of Nazi war crimes entering Canada." 

Justice Simon Fothergill, Federal Court 

 

"All Canadians, should know that the parts of the [Deschenes] report that have been released indicate that our government colluded or even went as far as working at the direction of the United States to allow Nazi war criminals to enter Canada."

"And this is something that the government has seemingly tried to withhold from Canadians, and so decisions like this bring us just that little bit closer to understanding this whole story and enabling us as a society to learn from our mistakes and to heal from some of the trauma that they caused."

Richard Robertson, director of advocacy, B'nai Brith Canada   

Nuremberg trials...Top Nazi leaders faced war crimes trials after the Second World War but many others who took part in the Holocaust went unpunished. The Canadian government is examining whether to release a list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals that was compiled in 1986 by the Deschênes Commission. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES (RECORD GROUP 238 / NAID 540127), PUBLIC DOMAIN

 

Years ago the Central Intelligence Agency which was  responsible for operating the Nazi resettlement program, released the then-classified information for public scrutiny. Canada is only now catching up, after lobbying by Jewish groups that records be released, on an American initiative to settle Nazi war criminals and their collaborators in Canada. Following the Second World War, a U.S. program was developed to surreptitiously settle Nazi war criminals in Canada. And this could never have been accomplished without the knowledge and support of Canadian officials of the day.

 

These would be the very same 'Canadian officials' such as Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and Canadian Immigration head F.C. Blair who felt that when it came to aiding Jews desperate to escape the Holocaust, it was considered that Jews were inherently 'inassimilable', leading to the infamous decision that "none is too many". Striking a familiar chord in the current Liberal government which considers it irrelevant whether its penchant for bringing in Muslims from 'inassimilable' cultures should limit their presence in Canada.

 

The federal government was  taken to court by Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith when they received a censored copy of a report written on Nazi war criminals for the 1985 Deschenes Commission. The Rodal Report as the study was named, focused on a secret U.S. government program to have Canada bypass proper security screenings while  resettling Nazis and their collaborators in Canada at the behest of the American authorities. Refusal to release the documents under the Access to Information law, the Liberal government claimed the records would further do harm in relations between Canada and the U.S. at this time of tensions between the two.

 

U.S. intelligence agencies had recruited Nazis and Nazi collaborators mostly from eastern Europe, during their covert operations against the Soviet Union. Canada, concluded Justice Fothergill, according to his reading of the study, was reluctant to prosecute such war criminals entering the country. Long viewed as a haven for Nazis and their collaborators, including large numbers of Waffen SS soldiers, the Canadian position did indeed smack of collaboration, just as the Red Cross and the Catholic Church at the time aided Nazis to escape judgement for their crimes by providing them with passports that hid their links to war crimes.

 

Screenshot from a 1987 news report by CTV News—based on the information that was public at the time.

 

A number of monuments exist in Canada memorializing the Waffen SS. In the planning for the Victims of Communism Memorial in Ottawa, several hundred known or suspected Nazi collaborators were recommended to be engraved on the plaques before the Department of Canadian Heritage, faced with pushback, was forced to remove those names. The puzzle respecting why the Canadian government of the day agreed to the Nazi post-war resettlement might finally be solved, with the disclosure and openness of the contents of these signal documents.

 

The Ukraine SS volunteer unit has been denounced by both the Polish government and Jewish groups for its role in killing civilians and its involvement during the Second World War in Nazi-led massacres. A national uprising in Slovakia saw the Ukraine Waffen SS allied with the Nazis to crush that uprising. Ukrainian nationalists in Canada view those SS Ukrainian soldiers as heroes for fighting against the Soviet Union which had joined the Allies following the German invasion of Russia.   

"It is a scandal that, during a time when Canada maintained severe restrictions on Jewish immigration to this country, it facilitated the entry of perpetrators of Nazi crimes." 

"Canadians have a right to know the truth about not only Canada’s actions but the US’s covert efforts to sneak ex-Nazis into Canada after the Second World War."

Simon Wolle, Chief Executive Officer, B'nai Brith Canada 

The Federal Court of Canada has ordered the release of sections of a 1986 report that had previously been removed from its public version. The document concerns the post-Second World War resettlement in Canada of suspected Nazi war criminals and collaborators. UANews

Russia Killing Ukrainians From The Skies

"[Putin presented an] objective and detailed analysis [of the frontline situation]."

"[Putin] pointed out what the Americans could realistically do to bring the hostilities to a swift conclusion [and stressed that Russia had] no aggressive plans [toward Europe]."

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov

 

"The moment the U.S. president's peace envoys left, Putin launched another massive, horrific attack against Kyiv."

"His ballistic missiles speak louder than his words on diplomacy."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Syubiga

 

"It was very terrifying, we barely managed to run into the parking lot."

"The parking lot was shaking all over."

"[My car was] burnt to ashes."

Nina Kimova, 55, Kyiv 

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a destroyed household chemical warehouse following a Russian missile and drone attack in Kyiv, 8 September, 2026 AP Photo 

According to the Kremlin, the Ukraine conflict was discussed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in an hour-long telephone conversation that was "extremely frank" and constructive. A Kremlin spokesperson described Mr. Putin's part of the conversation describing the frontline in his determined effort to subjugate Ukraine to his territorial aspirations of annexing as much of his sovereign neighbour's geography as possible, as 'objective'. The two countries -- the attacker and the defender, appear at this juncture to be in a stalemate, but the Russian aggressor holds to the fiction of reaching his objective.

Hoping to kick-start a fresh opportunity for talks between Moscow and Kyiv, negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left Moscow, their mission for the Trump administration at its own stalemate. Moscow will stick with its president's demands that Ukraine agree to Putin's annexation of all of the eastern Donbas, even those parts that continue to be held in the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and that Ukraine surrender its ambitions to join NATO. Understandably, Ukraine will have none of it.

 

Yet Kyiv is willing enough to resume the talks even while the Kremlin states it is "too early",  holding out as long as possible, while under U.S. pressure, to gain more of the ascendancy in grasping Ukrainian territory to fulfill Putin's ambition. According to Putin, Russian troops are steadily advancing across the entire front; it is a mere matter of time before all of the eastern Donbas falls to Russia. Giving assurances to the U.S. negotiators that beyond Russia's need to rescue Ukraine from its neo-Nazi leaders, there is no intention to pose a threat to any other European country.

 

Samya Kullab, Associated Press

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes no secret of his wish to resume face-to-face talks with the critical aim of ending the conflict, despite Putin's reluctance. "If all sides agree, we also want to hold it (negotiations) in the autumn. If September works out, then it would be great. The earlier, the better", he enthused hopefully, despite the abysmal failure of earlier negotiation rounds.

 

As soon as the U.S. negotiators left, Russia lost no time in carrying out what it termed a 'massive strike' on what it described as military-industrial sites, logistics hubs and storage centres located both in Kyiv and its near suburbs. The result of these unending strikes at civilian areas by Moscow has been unprecedented carnage with civilian deaths at their highest since the first months of the Russian 2022 offensive, according to the United Nations.

 

What Ukraine hopes for, and has the U.S. on board with, is to convince Moscow/Putin to reach for peace before winter sets in. Memories are raw for Ukraine of Russia's predictable attacks on the country's civilian energy grid, cutting power and heating to millions of Ukrainians at a time when temperatures sink as low as -20 Celsius. Kyiv has stated time and again it has no intention of capitulating to Moscow's demands to cede its  territory to Russia. Back to square one. 

At least 18 dead as Russia launches massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv The Guardian

"Russia's war is becoming more ruthless and destructive, but it's unfortunately not closer to ending." "Russia's army is bogged down on the ground, and that is why they are killing civilians from the skies."

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas

The BDS Movement of Israel's 'Allies'

"[The situation in the West Bank is] rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for theE1 settlement project."

"[The Israeli government must] immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence and investigate allegations against Israeli forces."

Joint statement: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden United Kingdom  

An Israeli settler works at a winery at the settlement of Yitzhar, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus. The U.K. government plans to implement a comprehensive trade ban and targeted sanctions on goods and services from Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria. (Getty Images)

 

"Today, France and Canada are announcing alongside Britain that they will also ban the import of goods from illegal settlements."

"The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway, which have either banned goods or are in the process of doing so, with many other countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden, [are] pledging today they will support further action."

"[The U.K. will also take action] against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion."

"The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists."

U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband 

Israel is a liberal democracy with a fully independent judiciary. It has internal problems, just as every other state has. It also has external-derived problems that no other state must cope with. Within Israel's population there is a multitude of ethnic and cultural and religious groups, from Christians to Druze and Kurds, Circassians, Bedouin, Baha'i and Muslims with full citizenship. The Israeli-Palestinian segment of the population alone represents 18 percent of the population, with full citizen rights. Not a single Jew is permitted to live in the Palestinian Territories.

 

In a world other than the Middle East, the prospect of a Jewish state living alongside that of a Muslim state has been a problem for a century and more. With the decision of 1947 by the UN that Arabs calling themselves Palestinians and Jews could live side-by-side in sovereign states of their own, Israel declared  

itself reborn in 1948 in an excess of joy, while Palestinians rejected the offer that partitioned the allotted territory for a state of its own. It has never, in the 80 years since then, moved to become a state through an agreement by which it would recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

 

Simply put, it awaited an opportunity that would see the destruction of Israel, with the Judean ancestral land declared theirs and theirs alone. An expectation and reality that is held by Palestinians but which remains unrevealed to the Western democracies that remain convinced that a two-state 'solution' will bring peace and security to both purported states. This, while Palestinian leaders have never stopped inciting their people toward terrorism which they call martyrdom. And to ensure that those martyrs are rewarded on earth, not only in Paradise attended by 72 virgins, payment goes out from the Palestinian Authority to those who commit violence against Jews.

 

Palestinian children are taught from elementary school forward to value martyrdom and to conceive of themselves as avengers against Jewish 'occupation' of Palestinian land. This grooming had the assistance of UNRWA, the UN agency devoted to the welfare of Palestinian victimhood, and respected by the very same countries that now insist Israel must put an end to reclaiming their historical geography squatted on by colonialists from Egypt and Jordan. None of these European nations condemning Israel for territorial 'expansionism' claiming a plot to disentitle and cleanse Palestinian from their proposed state have ever had to face the violent hatred that Israel does that results in horrific atrocities against its population.

 

When orthodox Jews 'settle' on their ancestral heritage in Judea and Samaria which the West has titled the West Bank, the Western community is outraged. When youth among those 'settlers' behave like the Palestinians constantly attacking Jews, Israel is outraged. Never so much however, as the international community which lingers solely on Jewish violence committed by a relative handful of Jewish hooligans and never on the institutionalized Palestinian mass-indoctrinated jihadists who are the pride of their leadership forever inculcating the lust of sadistic savagery on their youth.

 

Foreign interference in the affairs of another country is unsupportable by international standards of nation-to-nation diplomatic decorum. When it comes to Israel, all hindrances to bullying are withdrawn. The states that would bridle with indignation should any other country attempt to inform them what they should and must do internally to handle difficult situations, feel it is perfectly legitimate to consign the Jewish state to an entirely different level of expectations.  

 

A drone view shows a factory belonging to Israeli company Libi Construction and Infrastructure in Shilo, an Israeli area in Judea and Samaria. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

 

 By coincidence most of these countries have themselves been colonized by a gradual influx of immigrants, refugees and economic migrants from Muslim countries. The Koran states quite clearly that it is the  religious obligation of the ummah -- all those faithful to Islam worldwideeee, to convert non-believers, to broaden the base of Islamic followers, to do their utmost to ensure that Islam eventually overtakes all other religious devotion on Earth, in a grand conquest that will see it sweep to the position it was meant by Islam's prophet to attain to.

 

One by one, the countries that have aligned themselves with the forces devoted to degrading Israel's security will find themselves in the final death throes of their culture, laws, values and heritage. Their confusion over the changes already taking place, challenging their way of life, beliefs and customs turns them instead to blaming the very nation that despite its faith in democracy will not allow itself to be destroyed by the overwhelming forces of political Islam. That face of Islam that other Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa are now protecting themselves from, even as the West falls. 

 

These are also the countries, ironically and incidentally, that stood by and watched without intervention when Europe under Nazi occupation methodically and institutionally scheduled a Final Solution to dispose of the unwanted presence of Jews among them who had lived among them for centuries as undervalued citizens who contributed far more than their share to the prosperity and and cultural identity of any country they lived in, throughout the diaspora.  

 

The British consulate in East Jerusalem. Israel has ordered the closure of the consulate after London led Western sanctions over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Memories of Newfoundland's 9/11 'Guests' : Operation Yellow Ribbon

NBC New York

 

"Our college year just started ... And it was a normal morning. Everybody was in class, or wherever they were supposed to be."

"Everybody started crowding around the television, some radio. And the campus virtually came to a standstill."

"When the passengers came down to their breakfast, it was like walking into a first-class hotel. I mean, everything in the world that you wanted for breakfast was available."

"The big problem our cooks had, after the first day, was the stores were running out of food. [But] our cooks had managed to secure, you know, 250 or 300 chicken breasts in their raid of the stores the night before."

"The Salvation Army took control of the local hockey rink, and ... turned that into a walk-in cooler."

Newfoundlander Mac Moss

Thirty-eight international flights were grounded at Gander International Airport on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when U.S. airspace was shut down. Rogers TV

 

 Gander is about 335 kilometers distant from St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland. In 2001 the eyes of the world turned on northeastern Newfoundland, as it became known as a temporary haven for frightened Americans unable to fly through American skies for the period of time that U.S. internal security locked its airspace to flight in the grimly sober aftermath of the al-Qaeda terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers, Washington's Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania interruption by passengers of a third plane heading for destruction of yet another U.S. landmark. 

 

The world was shocked into incredulity at the brazen unexpected, appalling violence unleashed by terrorists overcoming passenger flight pilots on a massive suicide-mission to steer the planes they commandeered directly into iconic American buildings, to destroy them and all the lives that occupied them on that fateful day. A quarter-century has since passed, but for Newfoundlanders who cared for over 6,700 stranded Americans for days following the attacks, that memory will last as long as they do, and beyond.

 

At that time, principal of the Gander Campus of the College of the North Atlantic, Mac Moss was alerted to the attacks when a staff member called to tell him "We're listening to the radio up here. And a plane just flew into one of the World Trade Center Towers". The emergency services of the town of Gander soon called him,  asking whether accommodation could be made by the campus to look after incoming planeloads of passengers, to provide shelter, first aid and food. "I knew the size of the campus, the space we had available, and I said yes", said Moss.

 

Shelter was given to 7,000 stranded passengers and crew members in schools, churches, and private homes in Gander. CBS News

 

 A jumbo jetload of people disembarked at 7:00 p.m., carrying 234 passengers, the first of two such planes the college ended up hosting. It just happened that the college had commercial cooking and electronics classes on tap, allowing students and staff to prepare hot food, set up television feeds, install microphones in the cafeteria and gather linked supplies Employees of the college and their spouses volunteered bedding and food for their 'guests'. Free medical treatment, including prescription renewals was provided by Gander. A few student nurses assisted. "We had them set up serving a little triage area", recalled now-retired former principal Moss.

 

Tight living conditions necessarily prevailed for the passengers, with "20 or 30 people to a room, and ... they were lying on a tile floor, with just a blanket or a sheet  underneath them. If they didn't have a pillow, we gave them an extra sheet to put over shoes for pillows". Once the passengers left, Mr. Moss recalled, he had slept only several hours in those three days when his campus hosted the passengers. He eventually published a book, 'Flown into the Arms of Angels: Newfoundland and Labrador's Unsung Heroes of 9/11', in 2021

 

Some of those American 'guests' have remained in contact with some of the Newfoundlanders who had hosted them during that fearful, trying time. The impression the entire event held with him, recalls Mr. Moss is "how well our towns -- plural our towns -- were prepared to handle such an event, and they didn't know it, because they had never experienced [this] before". 

 

The Town of Gander has planned a "Parade of First Responders", along with a special remembrance of the thousands of lives lost in 9/11. The commemorative events for the 25th anniversary of the plane landings and the American citizens who became temporary guests, will host a number of notables, expected to speak at the commemoration. Among them, U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham, and former prime minister Jean Chretien, in office on the day of the attack when between 224 and 240 U.S. flights were diverted from U.S. airspace to Canadian airports. 

 

Mural Thanks Gander for Hosting Stranded Travelers on 9/11, Memorial and Museum, Gander, Nfld

 

"I did over 300 interviews, and I always asked them the same question: 'How did you feel after the passengers left'?"

"What they remembered most was the total exhaustion."

"After the passengers left, I don't think I had a good night's sleep for two or three months [mulling over details of the few days hosting confused U.S. plane passengers]." 

Newfoundland host Mac Moss 

Democratic Equality Has Its Language Limits in Quebec

"Let's be clear. No one is being denied access to information. No one is being denied the right to vote, either."

"We have adopted rules, and French is the official and common language of Quebec. We are applying the rules we have."

"The rights of the English-speaking community are being respected. We can be proud, I think, to defend our language."

"The ballot remains bilingual. And it will stay that way." 

Quebec Premier Christine Frechette 

For the first time ever, Quebecers will be mailed French-only voter information documents — a decision Premier Christine Fréchette won’t reverse. But lawyers argue the move violates the fundamental right to vote.  CBC News

 

"I think they could have an English version tomorrow, and they could mail it out the day after tomorrow." "So the the idea that it's become impossible … is another example of the high-handedness and the pettiness of the language attitudes."

"It's time now to go back to the principles of the Charter … that all people are of equal worth."

"[The introduction of Bill 96 is part of a] regrettable trend [of] linguistic dogmatism and identity politics [in the province]."

Civil rights lawyer Julius Gray   

Lawyers in Quebec are preparing to mount a legal challenge against the province of Quebec's Premier's decision to discontinue mailing out English-language voting information; all such voting information will be published and circulated in French only. The CAQ leader stated that all discussions surrounding the issue had concluded, and she was adamant that there would be no reason to second-think the issue any further.

 

As far as Elections Quebec is concerned English-language mailers will not be sent out ahead of the October 5 election. A compromise that includes a QR code was available, linked to an English web page. Elderly English-speaking Quebecers who don't use cellphones and have no idea what to do with a QR code are obviously out of luck. Legislation brought in under La Coalition avenir Québec had forced the change, said the agency, washing its hands of the inconvenient matter.

 

It had, explained Elections Quebec, requested a carve-out in the legislation to permit mailouts in both languages, to continue engaging with English-language residents of Quebec as usual, but lost the argument to the government's refusal. Voting rights and English-language advocates claim the decision presents barriers to voting, a claim that Premier Frechette dismissed, informing questioning news media she saw no risk of anglophones being befuddled over voting.

 

 

Everywhere else in Canada, in the other provinces and territories, federal legislation declaring French-language rights alongside those of the English-speaking majority are sacrosanct. Wherever French-speaking Canadians live in the country there are mandated obligations to ensure they are served in their own language. Quebec remains the exception in this as in most other areas of  'self-determination' as an exception, entitled to rights no other provinces can even imagine. 

 

And although the federal government commissioner of official languages had confirmed her office had been given notice regarding the French-only election mailouts, there is little trust that in the commission of her official duties she will reprimand the province and invite a lashback that would certainly risk discombobulating the Liberal government of Canada, so traditionally reliant on Quebec for the reliability of their ruling majorities. 

 

Language-equality be damned, in a grasping, language-paranoid, nationalist-fuming Quebec! 

 

Élections Québec says it will no longer mail voting information documents in English in order to comply with changes to the province’s language laws. English-speaking advocates worry the move could make it harder for some voters to access information, including where and when to vote. CBC News

 

"I couldn't believe it. [The measure is an] unacceptable impediment [because it means English-speaking Quebecers are] not getting equal access [to important voting information; a violation of a constitutional right]."

"It will certainly raise a question of the legitimacy of an election where certain people are not given equal access to voting."

"Everybody's supposed to get the same information around the same time, and on a timely basis in order to be able to make an informed decision as to who to vote for, and to be able to vote." 

"To say that a whole swath of the population suddenly can only get their information on a differential and more complicated basis means that we don't all have an equal right to vote."

"[It's] saying, 'Well, you English-speaking people, if you want, you can get a QR code so you can get the information.' That's a pretty deliberate step … saying, 'You know, we don't really care if you vote.'"

Eric Maldoff, lawyer, former president, Alliance Quebec, anglophone-advocacy organization