By Colin Robertson

September 13, 2026

Twenty-five years after September 11th, we remember the role Canadians played in Gander.

We should also remember a telephone call in Brussels — and the difference between friendship and submission.

Nicholas Burns had been the United States ambassador to NATO for 12 days when the attacks came that day. In the ensuing chaos, he could not reach his government.

David Wright, Canada’s ambassador to NATO and dean of the North Atlantic Council, called: “Nick, have you thought about invoking Article 5?”

Burns recalled the exchange this week on World Review, a Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center podcast, with Harvard colleagues Meghan O’Sullivan, Juliette Kayyem and Ivo Daalder. Burns had told me the story with heartfelt emotion at a Ditchley conference a decade ago.

NATO’s collective-defence clause had never been used. Wright and Burns canvassed the other ambassadors, and on September 12, 2001, the alliance invoked Article 5 for the first and only time.

“The very first person to suggest that we invoke Article 5 was the Canadian ambassador,” recalled Burns on the podcast, quoting Condoleezza Rice at the time, saying: “It’s good to have friends in the world.”

Canada did more than offer sympathy. Operation Yellow Ribbon diverted 224 aircraft carrying more than 33,000 passengers to Canadian airports. Days later, 100,000 Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill. More than 40,000 Canadians served in Afghanistan; 158 members of the Canadian Armed Forces and one diplomat, Glyn Berry, died in a suicide bombing.

That history offers the Carney government six lessons for a more dangerous age.

First, influence begins with usefulness. Carney is right to accelerate defence spending and rebuild Canada’s defence industry. But money announced is not capability delivered. Ottawa must produce personnel, ammunition, Arctic surveillance and deployable forces. Wright’s call carried weight because Canada was present and trusted.

Second, solidarity is not subservience. Jean Chrétien, prime minister on 9/11, returned to Gander on Friday with a message for the present moment: “We embrace our friends and we help them in their moment of need, but we bow to no one.”

Canada joined the justified campaign against Al-Qaeda’s Afghan sanctuary. Chrétien later kept Canada out of the Iraq invasion when it lacked a new UN Security Council resolution and the American case for war did not stand up.

A good ally helps in a real emergency and says no when the evidence does not support war. Canada cannot decouple from an indispensable but less predictable United States, nor should it subcontract its judgment.

Third, prepare for shocks — and negotiate from a common plan in response.

The 9/11 Commission called the failure to anticipate the attacks a failure of imagination. The U.S. response meant the border then became both a defence line and an economic choke point.

NATO’s collective-defence clause had never been used. Wright and Burns canvassed the other ambassadors, and the alliance invoked Article 5 for the first and only time.

Canada and the United States answered with the Smart Border Declaration and its 30-point action plan, negotiated by Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley and White House Director of Homeland  Security (later secretary of homeland security)Tom Ridge.

The plan made security and trade mutually reinforcing. Political principals owned one list. Officials had deliverables, deadlines and progress reports. Practical results included expanded NEXUS processing and FAST lanes for low-risk commercial shipments.

Manley and Ridge also developed a strong working and personal relationship. That human dimension is often undervalued. Rapport encourages candour, speeds communication and helps negotiators construct compromise.

The contrast with Washington today is sobering.

Donald Trump treats disruption as leverage. Canada should proceed with eyes wide open, item by item, insist on reciprocity and give nothing away without a measurable, durable and verifiable return.

Fourth, diplomacy and a career Foreign Service are vital to effective statecraft.

Both Wright and Burns were career diplomats. Wright spent 35 years in Canada’s foreign service; Burns served six presidents and later became ambassador to China. Their initiative showed what a professional foreign service supplies: judgment, relationships and the confidence to act when instructions cannot arrive.

And, in a moment of both maximum pressure and maximum consequence, knowing that you’re speaking with a counterpart who both understands the security and diplomatic context as a professional and has no political agenda can be absolutely crucial.

Trump’s administration has hollowed out U.S. diplomatic capacity. In 2025, the State Department dismissed 1,107 civil servants and 246 Foreign Service officers. As of September 1, 2026, 99 of 196 U.S. ambassadorial posts were vacant.

Chargés d’affaires keep embassies operating, but they rarely have an ambassador’s access or authority. Lost expertise and empty posts handicap American diplomacy when the world needs more of it, not less.

Fifth, emergency powers require guardrails. The U.S. embraced torture, indefinite detention and warrantless surveillance. The case of Canadian  Maher Arar showed how bad information shared across a border can destroy an innocent life. Security requires independent review and judicial control.

Finally, homeland security is economic security. Cyberattacks, disinformation, fragile supply chains, foreign interference and an exposed Arctic demand defence investments that also strengthen civilian resilience.

Burns final reflection is important: “It was the help of our allies. It was the instinct of our allies to help us and defend us, that we need to rebuild.”

Canada’s task is to answer the call, possess the capacity to help and retain the confidence to disagree.

Chrétien’s words in Gander “never mistake Our generosity for weakness” describe an adult alliance: generosity without weakness, friendship without submission.

That is how a middle power protects its sovereignty and earns influence — and ensures that, in the next crisis, friendship remains a strategic fact rather than a relic of a lost relationship.

Burns says he still calls Wright every September 11th, to thank him.

Contributing Writer Colin Robertson, C.M., C.D., a former career diplomat, is a fellow and host of the Global Exchange podcast with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute in Ottawa.