U.S. not treated well by Canada? 'Come From Away' director says that's a cruel lie

Jillian Keiley, director of the musical "Come From Away," poses in Montreal on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — U.S. President Donald Trump’s targeting of Canada has left people feeling hurt and betrayed in central Newfoundland, where on Sept. 11, 2001, residents famously dropped everything to care for thousands of people stranded by terrorist attacks against the United States.

Jillian Keiley, director of the Newfoundland run of “Come From Away,” was particularly devastated to hear Trump accuse Canada of abusing the United States and not treating Americans well.

The hit Broadway musical is based on the story of Newfoundlanders feeding, clothing and housing thousands of airline passengers routed to Gander, N.L., when the 9/11 attacks grounded air traffic. Keiley’s work means she spends much of the year thinking about the relationship between the terrified Americans who landed in Canada with no idea what was happening back home — and the Newfoundlanders who looked after them without hesitation for five days.

“To call us a bad friend? That, to me, is cruel,” she said in an interview this week. “Lie about what you want, but don’t say Canada has treated you poorly.”

As he ponders the imposition of crippling 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, Trump has called Canada “very abusive” and dangled the threat of making it the 51st state. The bellicose rhetoric prompted a wave of patriotism across Canada, as well as anti-American sentiments.

Keiley, who lives in St. John’s, N.L., says that when Canadian audiences booed the American national anthem recently at professional hockey and basketball games, that also hurt.

The “beautiful generosity” at the heart of the “Come From Away” story was reciprocal, she said. Newfoundlanders found lifelong friends in the Americans who slept in their homes, schools and community centres. An Ohio woman set up scholarships at the school in the town that cared for her.

“There are a minuscule number of very mercenary and cruel people who believe that they can take Canada’s sovereignty and take Canada’s love, and abuse it. I have to believe they’re a small number,” Keiley said.

When her show was staged in Gander, a big chunk of the nightly audience was American, she said: “These were people who made the pilgrimage to Gander, because Gander was sacred ground, a place of hope, a place where it’s possible that something could happen where people were just generous.”

Kevin Tuerff was aboard one of the planes that landed in Gander, and he is the basis for the Kevin T. character in the musical. The New York resident was so taken with the “remarkable kindness” and love he felt in central Newfoundland, he launched the Pay It Forward 9/11 foundation, which encourages people to carry out acts of kindness in honour of those killed in the 2001 attacks.

The idea is to live by what he calls the golden rule: “Treat others as you want to be treated,” he said in an interview.

“Threatening tariffs, trying to use them as a bargaining chip, is a violation of the golden rule, and it’s not the way you treat your best trading partner and your ally,” Tuerff said. “It’s frankly despicable to me.”

“With a wink and a nod, I want to say, ‘I’m sorry,‘’' he added, alluding to the stereotype of apologetic Canadians

Derm Flynn says there is no need for apologies. Flynn was mayor of Appleton, N.L., when the planes were diverted to the airport in nearby Gander, which had a population of about 9,600 people at the time. He and his wife, Diane, took in half a dozen people and their story is told in “Come From Away.”

He feels betrayed by Trump, but he doesn’t hold the president’s actions against the many Americans who wound up in Newfoundland in 2001.

“The friendships that were built at that time have lasted for (nearly) 25 years and will last well beyond that,” Flynn said in an interview. “This is a betrayal by a new administration that doesn’t seem to want to understand what has transpired.”

Claude Elliott agrees that no political situation could ever erode the friendships made that week, nor people’s instinct to care for one another in desperate situations. Elliott also became a character in the play, as he was mayor of Gander when the flights were grounded.

Though Elliott worries a chasm is opening between Canada and the United States, he hopes it will be short-lived. “If 7,000 people from the United States showed up here in Gander today, we would treat them just as we did on 9/11,” he said.

As Keiley prepares for another run of “Come From Away” in Gander this summer, she says she won’t be changing anything in the production. The musical’s message of setting aside differences to embrace that which unites has never been more important, she said.

In fact, there is a scene toward the end of the play where she wishes she could show Trump when Newfoundlanders pack lunches for the thousands of passengers finally cleared to leave.

“It’s not even that we take care of you when you’re here,” she said. “We’ll take care of you until you get home. That is living with love.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2025.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press