The September 18 exercise, called the Joint Services Emergency Exercise, had been planned about eight months and based on a fictitious international terrorist organization operating in Toronto, Canada . The simulation was designed to test the preparedness of the emergency responder community. The demand of the simulated attack was the withdrawal of Canadian troops in Afghanistan or face the consequences: a massive attack against the city’s public transit system and an office building in the financial district. The attack began with a bomb, later to be determined to be radioactive cesium-137, detonating at the St. Andrew’s subway station. This dirty bomb, a byproduct of the Chernobyl disaster but also having commercial value, was chosen because of its lethal toxicity, its long-lasting effects on public health, and its slow kill. A second explosion of a hydrogen cyanide, also having commercial applications but best known as Zyklon B for the Nazi extermination campaign, weapon occurred minutes later at the nearby Royal Trust Tower. This forced an evacuation and decontamination triage of the entire building. The simulation disrupted major transit and the city’s downtown area, leaving the first responders to deal with the simulated crisis. Toronto was relatively deserted at 8:30am on a Sunday, as the planners of the event opted to avoid involving the work force on a weekday to prevent any misunderstanding or confusion about the simulation.

The exercise was designed to help various agencies foster good working relations and communications in case of a real-life CBRN attack in Toronto and to test their current response level. It included response from the police, fire, paramedics, joint CBRN Response Team, along with Toronto Transit Commission, the city of Toronto, and the private sector. Oddly, the city’s Emergency Plan, dated May 2005, is available online at: link. In total, the simulation included 250 people and cost under $30,000. According to Gregory Stasyna of Toronto’s Emergency Management, “People are just not used to working together as much as they should, because we don’t simulate big events like this and thank goodness, we don’t get events?frequently.” Stasyna complained that the CBRN team of six core members is “too small” for a bona fide attack and would be “stretched after 24 hours [while] a real disaster would go on for days.” This, he blamed on inadequate federal funding and indicated he would be forced to look outside Toronto for generosity and donations of staff to deal with such a crisis. However,, “The response [to the staged attacks] was a huge success. Toronto has an extremely effective emergency response co-ordination?That’s not true in some other places that have dealt with disaster,” Mayor David Miller said.

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