Toronto's business crowd remembers 9/11

As Toronto's business community gathered toremember their lost colleagues and friends in a 9/11 ceremony, onebusiness leader recalled how the fine dust from the collapsed World Trade Center towers clung to his clothes.

"It was finer than baby powder. You tried to brush it off your shoes. It wouldn't. It got into the pores," said Thomas Caldwell, chairman of investment management firm Caldwell Securities Ltd.

Symbolically, he said,he still hasn't been able to brush away the remains of that day.

"I don't think I want to," he added.

Caldwell spoke at a gathering of about 100 people thatincluded relatives and friends of the 24 Canadians who diedin the al-Qaeda attacks five years ago.

Comforting, but tough for family

Thesombre memorial service washeld inthe dining room of the Toronto Board of Trade office,in the First Canadian Place at Bay and King streets.

Among those at the breakfast service was 21-year-old Brennan Basnicki,whose father, Ken, was one of the Canadians killed.

"It's comforting to be here and know that there are events going on in Toronto," said Basnicki, but added that it was difficult to attend the event.

Those gathered sang the U.S. and Canadian national anthems and listened to several speeches, including one thatcalled for tougher anti-terrorism legislation.

Glen Grunwald, the president and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade, said business is about a lot more than deals and bottom lines it's about relationships, especially within the financial community.

Vigil at U.S. Consulate

Several blocks away, about two dozen people congregated for a vigil near the front stairs atthe U.S. Consulate on University Avenue. Several of them were visiting Americans.

The U.S. flag flew at half-mast. At 8:46 a.m. ET, the time the first plane struck one of the towers, the crowd observed a moment of silence.

Handwritten cards, letters, flowers and small U.S. flags lay on a table set up on the sidewalkin frontof the consulate.

Workers passing by on their way to the office placed flowers on the growing mound.