Canada's leader laments lost friendship with US in town that sheltered stranded Americans after 9/11

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday lamented Canada’s lost friendship with the United States as he visited the town that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks.

Carney's visit to Gander, Newfoundland on the second day of a national election campaign comes against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s almost daily attacks on Canada’s sovereignty have left Canadians feeling betrayed.

"In this crisis caused by the U.S. president and those who are enabling him, we lament a friendship lost," Carney said. “In Gander Canadians did extraordinary things for Americans when they needed it. Now, we need to do extraordinary things for ourselves.”

Gander opened its arms to nearly 6,600 airline passengers diverted there when the U.S. government shut down airspace during 9/11.

In a matter of a few hours, the town population of 10,000 in 2001 was overwhelmed by 38 planeloads of travelers, yet locals went to work in their kitchens and cleaned up spare rooms to offer space and food to the newcomers.

When more than 200 flights were diverted to Canada following the attacks on the United States, the Canadians shunted the traffic away from Toronto and Montreal to the eastern seaboard.

Obscure, little-used Gander got to relive its glory days as a stopover point for trans-Atlantic aviation before long-distance flights became possible. Built in 1938 in anticipation of the coming world war, it had the world’s longest runway, and on 9/11 it was the second busiest, taking in 38 flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia’s 47.

Flight crews quickly filled Gander’s hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations and church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Unable to retrieve their luggage, passengers became dependent on the kindness of strangers, and it came in the shape of clothes, showers, toys, banks of phones to call home free of charge, an arena that became a giant walk-in fridge full of donated food.

Once all the planes had landed or turned back to Europe, Gander’s air traffic controllers switched to cooking meals in the building nonstop for three days.

“More than 6,000 passengers. Overnight, the town’s population almost doubled,” Carney said during a speech to residents. “You showed friendship to people who were fearful. In a crisis, you showed your character. When people needed help, you gave it.”

On Monday, Carney visited the home of Beulah Cooper, who opened her home and comforted many, including Dennis and Hannah O’Rourke, an elderly couple whose New York firefighter son, Kevin, went missing at the World Trade Center and was later confirmed to have died there.

The O’Rourkes remained friends with Cooper long after and went back to Gander, saying they felt eternally indebted.

Now, Cooper says she feels betrayed by America, though she remains friends with Hannah O'Rourke, whose husband passed away. She also feels bad for her American friends.

“There’s too many bad words for me to say on the phone about what I think of Trump,” Cooper said. “Canada was the best ally they had."

Carney noted the Gander story of that day became legend, immortalized in the Canadian-made Broadway hit musical “Come from Away.”

Carney said Canadians have always been by Americans' side whether it was during the Iran hostage crisis, or more recently during the California wildfires or in Afghanistan, where Canada lost 158 members of the armed forces and seven civilians.

Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians. The American president has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested the border is a fictional line.

Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as all of America’s trading partners — on April 2.

Carney said Canadians are over the shock of the betrayal but now have to look out for themselves. He said Canadians and Americans have traditionally been like brothers.

"But that’s changed. And it wasn’t us who did the changing. Unfortunately, President Trump’s actions have put that kinship under greater strain today than at any point in our storied history,” Carney said.

Carney, at the start of a five-week election campaign before the vote on April 28, said he's not looking for friendship from the Americans. “I am just looking for respect at this point,” he said.

The new prime minister, sworn in March 14, still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump and suggested that might not happen until after the election. “I’m available for a call. But you know we are going to talk on our terms as a sovereign country, not as what he pretends we are,” Carney said.

He said the Americans are making a “fundamental mistake" in the trade war.

“They think they will weaken us. They think that they can own us quite frankly, that’s what they think,” he said. “We are going to get stronger. We are going to wait this out. They are going to come to the table and we are going to negotiate a good deal for Canadians.”

Canada Liberal Leader Mark Carney makes an announcement at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland, on Monday March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Liberal Leader Mark Carney shares a laugh with residents during a meet and greet at the airport in Gander Newfoundland, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Beulah Cooper and Diane Davis, left, in Gander, N.L., on Monday March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Liberal Leader Mark Carney pauses while speaking at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland, on Monday March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet launches his campaign with candidates in front of the U.S. consulate in Quebec City on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre appears at a federal election campaign event in Brampton, Ontario, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Liberal Leader Mark Carney arrives in Gander, Newfoundland, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, center, walks with candidate Caroline Desbiuens, right, to a news conference with candidates in Quebec City Monday, March 24, 2025. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is joined by his wife Anaida Poilievre and children Cruz and Valentina, as he talks with employees at Kruger Packaging during a federal election campaign event in Brampton, Ontario, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Liberal Leader Mark Carney arrives in Gander, Newfoundland, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada NDP leader Jagmeet Singh hits the punching bag in an outdoor gym under a bridge after a campaign event during a federal election stop in Montreal on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre talks with employees at Kruger Packaging during a federal election campaign event in Brampton, Ontario, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, right, laughs in the snow with his campaign wagon master Laura Ziemba, centre, after a event with supporters during a federal election campaign stop in Montreal on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, right, reacts with MP candidate Nima Machouf, left, as he attends a campaign event with supporters during a federal election campaign stop in Montreal on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney looks through a photo album with Beulah Cooper at her home in Gander, Newfoundland, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Liberal Leader Mark Carney arrives in Gander, N.L., on Monday, March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet launches his campaign with candidates in front of the USA consulate in Quebec City Monday, March 24, 2025. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney gets a hug from Beulah Cooper as he arrives at her house in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

TECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.

Noem's trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”

The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses while presenting little evidence that they were part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.

Noem notably dodged questions by the press about if the Venezuelan deportees were going to be in the prison indefinitely and if the Venezuelans could ever be brought back to the U.S. if a court orders the administration to do so.

“We're going to let the courts play out,” she told reporters following the visit.

Noem toured an area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members. In the sweltering building, the men in white T-shirts and shorts stared silently from their cell, then were heard shouting an indiscernible chant when she left.

In a cell block holding Salvadoran prisoners, about a dozen were lined up by guards near the front of their cell and told to remove their T-shirts and face masks. The men were heavily tattooed, some bearing the letters MS, for the Mara Salvatrucha gang, on their chests.

After listening to Salvadoran officials, Noem turned her back to the cell and recorded a video message.

If an immigrant commits a crime, “this is one of the consequences you could face," Noem said. "First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”

Noem also met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, a populist who has gained right-wing admiration in the U.S. due to his crackdown on the country's gangs, despite the democratic and due process implications that have come with it.

“This unprecedented relationship we have with El Salvador is going to be a model for other countries on how they can work with America,” Noem said to reporters Wednesday.

Since taking office, Noem has frequently been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown. She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.

Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She'll also travel to Colombia and Mexico.

The Venezuelans were removed from the U.S. this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the U.S. was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.

An appeals court Wednesday kept in place an order barring the administration from deporting more Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

A central outstanding question about the deportees’ status is when and how they could ever be released from the prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, as they are not serving sentences. They no longer appear in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator and have not appeared before a judge in El Salvador.

The Trump administration refers to them as the “worst of the worst” but hasn't identified who was deported or provided evidence that they’re gang members.

Relatives of some of the deportees have categorically denied any gang affiliation. The Venezuelan government and a group called the Families of Immigrants Committee in Venezuela hired a lawyer to help free those held in El Salvador. A lawyer for the firm, which currently represents about 30 Venezuelans, said they aren't gang members and have no criminal records.

The U.S. government has acknowledged that many do not have such records.

Flights were in the air March 15 when a federal judge issued a verbal order temporarily barring the deportations and ordered planes to return to the U.S.

The Trump administration has argued that the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the U.S.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that about 261 people were deported on the flights, including 137 under the Alien Enemies Act.

Bukele opened the prison in 2023 as he made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.

Prisoners can't have visitors. There are no workshops or educational programs.

El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have consular support from their government.

Video released by El Salvador’s government after the deportees' arrival showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down.

They were later shown at the prison kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.

For three years, El Salvador has been operating under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights as Bukele wages an all-out assault on the country's powerful street gangs. During that time, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties and jailed, often without due process.

Bukele offered to hold U.S. deportees in the prison when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited in February.

At the prison Wednesday, El Salvador Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro showed Noem a cell holding Salvadorans he said had been there since the prison opened. “No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” he said.

Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Marcos Alemán in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem takes questions from the press before boarding her plane at Comalapa International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attends a Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement Memorandum of Cooperation signing ceremony, at the presidential palace in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem looks at weapons during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives at the presidential palace in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Minister of Justice and Public Security Héctor Villatoro, right center, accompanies Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Guards patrol from a prison watchtower as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and Minister of Justice and Public Security Héctor Villatoro, tour the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A prisoner stands shackled against a wall as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Minister of Justice and Public Security Héctor Villatoro, pointing, accompanies Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Minister of Justice and Public Security Héctor Villatoro accompanies Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a tour of cellblock 7 of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Minister of Justice and Public Security Héctor Villatoro, right center, speaks to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as they begin their tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

As prisoners stand looking out from a cell, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Ambassador William H. Duncan, left, receives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she arrived at the Comalapa International Airport, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Ambassador William H. Duncan, left, receives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she arrived at the Comalapa International Airport, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. Ambassador William H. Duncan receives Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as she deplanes at the Comalapa International Airport, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives to board her plane, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Noem is traveling to El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem boards her plane, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Noem is traveling to El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak during a tour, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Kodiak, Alaska. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)