Bin laden’s death no cause for celebration: Canadian victims’ families

Celebrations marking the death of Osama bin Laden kicked into high gear in the United States on Monday but many of the Canadians most personally affected by the news refrained from joining in.

While jubilant crowds formed at major U.S. landmarks and congratulations poured in from every continent, family members of the 24 Canadians killed on Sept. 11, 2001, struggled to come to terms with news that the mastermind behind the attacks had been killed.

“It’s kind of a muted victory,” said Hans Gerhardt, whose son Ralph died while working as a bond trader at the World Trade Center.

“Not that a person was killed, but that somebody who was so full of hatred and spread so much hatred and inflicted so much pain on so many people,” Gerhardt said. “From this point it’s an important day and it’s a victory in some kind of sense, but I’m not celebrating because it doesn’t bring our son back.”

Erica Basnicki, whose father Ken was killed while on a business trip to New York, said she was overwhelmed by a flood of conflicting emotions when she woke up to news of bin Laden’s death.

Images of public celebrations in the United States troubled Basnicki, despite her personal antipathy for the late al-Qaida leader. The death of a man she believes can be “easily replaced” marks the end of just one effort to eradicate terrorism, she said.

“People have used the word ‘justice’ quite a bit today, and I don’t feel that way about it,” she said from her home in London. “My family, we’re not a revenge family. Osama’s death is not something that we’re happy about. I can’t really say we’re unhappy about it, but that’s not what we wanted.”

“We will be happy and celebrating when terrorists are financially incapable of committing further acts of violence. We’ll be happy when the war is over,” Basnicki said.

Cindy Barkway, who has raised her two children alone since losing her husband David in the World Trade Center attack, had a similarly ambivalent reaction.

“I feel strange that he’s dead,” she said. “I hope it’s true. But I don’t know if I feel like celebrating. It doesn’t change much of my reality.”

Basnicki admits to a sense of relief that bin Laden can no longer orchestrate terrorist attacks, but says her emotions are tempered by fear that his slaying will prompt retaliation from other extremist groups.

“I don’t think al-Qaida is just going to say, ‘oh, you got him’ and not do anything about it,” she said. “I’m nervous about what might come after this.”

Fears of reprisals were stoked by al-Qaida’s vehement pledges of vengeance, as well as condemnation from Hamas and other hardline Islamic regimes.

Those threats, however, couldn’t dampen the emotions of one mourning parent.

Aurora Santos, who said she still struggles to cope with the death of her son Ruffino, said she greeted news of bin Laden’s death with nothing but relief.

“I was so happy that finally justice has been done already,” she said from Richmond, B.C.

For many of the victims’ loved ones, word of bin Laden’s death brought a period of sometimes painful reflection.

The announcement has forced Gerhardt to relive the pain of his son’s death, he said, adding he couldn’t help but reflect on the birthdays Ralph will never celebrate and the children he’ll never have.

Ellen Judd of Winnipeg, whose partner Christine Egan was killed in New York, took a more optimistic view, saying bin Laden’s death highlights just how far global relations have come in the past decade.

“I think that if we look back on this, we can see that what’s really important is that people to whom Osama bin Laden was appealing have, for the most part, rejected his call to violence,” she said.

“So what we have right now is a world in which there are better possibilities than there were 10 years ago.”

Gerhardt wondered why it took so long to eliminate one of the most wanted men in the world but said he wouldn’t quibble over the outcome.

“You would have hoped this would have come earlier, but this day is as good as any day.”

– With files from Brian Pardoe and Ken Trimble.