Adam at the CN Tower MF?/MF?
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2026 8:36 pm
Adam at the CN Tower
Early Sunday morning
I’m Adam.
Assistant Deputy Manager for the company that runs the CN Tower for the owner.
In training.
On the job 2 weeks.
Trying to restart my life in middle age from the get-go.
I was given the short straw for on-call for the last long weekend of the summer, a very beautiful weekend.
My boss went out of town camping with his girl friend in Algonquin Park. No cell service.
“Don’t worry, nothing will happen,” he had said confidently, “the only thing you might have to do is approve taking an elevator out of passenger service for a restaurant delivery or a service tech for the transmitters. Record the time, date, who or which company. Get a call back to restore the elevator. Nothing to do at all.”
All I had to do was press the 9 key.
Very early Sunday morning there was a call from the security tower desk, “There’s a crack in one of the tower legs that needs looking at.” About 200 feet up. Too high for an extension ladder or a fire truck.
Being a Torontonian I was aware of the CN Tower, older than I am. But I have no information on handling such a situation. Nor is there a backup to which I could escalate the issue. Nor could I go to my office as my out-of-hours access had not been set up.
What would happen if somehow the tower collapsed?
In desperation I queried AI.
“The closest situation was a potential for collapse of the Citicorp tower in NYC last century. It seems that the structural design did not consider quartering winds.” AI didn’t mention last minute changes to structural assembly that had not been analyzed properly.
AI recommended contacting the insurance agency and the structural engineers. And some lawyers. And inspect the leg of the tower.
I didn’t have any information on the design of the tower, its ownership, lawyers. Most people involved had probably passed on or retired.
Nor did I know if I had any authority to engage consultants, install safety barriers etc. But if there was a collapse my rear end would be in a huge crack.
I decided I needed to have a close look at the damage. I knew the fire department had personnel with training on rescuing people who were trapped in safety harnesses unable to extricate themselves.
So I called 9-1-1 and asked for the fire department, mentioning there wasn’t a fire but I had to reach their rescue team. First attempt led to a “This line is no longer in service” message.
I eventually reached Fireman Andrew. Andrew was not only the specialist in aerial rescue but getting ready for a practice session on rescuing someone hanging part way down a tall building. They would love to practice on the CN Tower rather than the usual slab-sided edifice. They conduct these drills on weekends to minimize traffic disruptions. And they had information on anchor points that could be used.
I stuck my neck out giraffe length and authorized the CN tower. I at least could ensure they could reserve an elevator.
I needed to inspect the crack myself, so I became the test-dummy.
I travelled across town to the CN Tower in my roughest clothes and met Andrew and the other firemen at the base. We got our first view of the crack, somewhat black. Couldn’t distinguish just what it was from the ground. Nor was their drone much help. But quite a large apparent gash.
Andrew gave me the choice of being lowered from the restaurant level (a drop of around 900 feet) or hoisted up from the base, a mere 200 feet or so. Chicken me.
So the rescue team went up to the restaurant level and lowered several ropes. I was put in a harness, given a safety helmet with a GoPro. I had a handheld camera as well, recording everything. And a walkie-talkie.
I was waiting for the “rescuer” to be lowered to the level of the crack when a fireman who had been walking around approached me with a plastic self-sealing bag with a black hexagonal object inside, slightly convex, maybe 5 or 6 inches across. He had found it on the ground near the base of the tower and said there were some others around, in pieces. I asked him to collect a half a dozen more, documenting the location found. Somehow it was familiar.
The rescuers started hoisting me up, playing out a rope from below as I rose up the side.
I felt like I was a bound person trapped in space. I shut my eyes for a few seconds in a reverie and remembered what the object might be. Elon Musk’s Starship had had a RUD event recently. RUD was Musk’s euphemism for a calamitous disintegration of a spacecraft or the booster. The black object was a tile from the re-entry shielding. Ominous that the tiles would survive re-entry and fast enough to significantly gouge the concrete of the tower.
When I reached the crack, its dark colour matched the colour of the piece the fireman found. I noted a broken vertical re-bar – it had been cut across, not stressed in tension with a narrowing neck at the place of failure. Other pieces of re-bar nicked. Took pictures.
I collected a very small sample of the discolouration, looked carefully for evidence of a huge crack in the concrete column but didn’t find any, but realized professionals would have to conduct a follow-on expert evaluation. Later.
Quite likely the CN Tower had been hit by one of the re-entry tiles.
The ‘rescuer’ concurred with my observations.
The tower was not in danger of falling over across railway tracks, roads, buildings. Not to speak of the interruption to communications.
My descent was more enjoyable now I knew things were safe. Eyes shut.
Late Tuesday afternoon.
There was a postmortem on the events of the weekend in the Toronto boardroom of the owner of the CN Tower. My immediate boss made the presentation, not dwelling very much on my role. Which I was grateful as I was in my aged best off-the-rack suit, in amongst the Armani suit crowd.
The discussions included how the world’s richest man could be held to account. Conclusion: unlikely
The group retired to the executive suite for refreshments. Two women joined the group having arrived from Ottawa, one appearing to be an aide to the other. The first person was very attractive, long blond hair, probably in her fifties, wonderful smile on her face. The other was younger by a couple of decades, slightly stockier than the first, by demeanour clearly a support person to the first. But very nice.
I stood in the background, unobtrusively nursing my ginger ale in a champagne glass.
After a while the two women came over to me and the more expensively dressed lady introduced herself, “I’m Evelyn and am the President of the organization that owns the CN Tower. Would you mind answering a few questions?”
I agreed, and we retreated to a out of the way corner. “Would you like a refill?” Evelyn asked.
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind a coffee at this time.”
“Good idea. I think I’ll have a tea.”
Her assistant headed off to get the beverages. Evelyn brought out her cell and asked if I would let her record our conversation. “I won’t get you into trouble; from what I’ve heard you acted promptly and properly.”
“You heard that I’m just a trainee stuck with a on-call duty over the weekend? I was assured ‘Nothing would happen.’” Evelyn nodded, then said “Yes” for the record.
She listened attentively to my recital, polished after several presentations during the day.
The only disturbance was some reporter wanting to barge in. Evelyn’s assistant blocked the way.
We heard her asked for the man’s id and he passed over a business card. And still persisted.
The assistant brought out a notebook, black in colour and wrote down the man’s name. “Please leave us alone.”
He refused.
“This is my Black Book! Do you really want to be in it?” the assistant said. “Please leave us alone.”
The man got up and tried to get around the assistant.
“You’ll get into trouble.”
“Nah,” he said and brushed her aside.
Only to end up on his back half way across the room, sore from a couple of judo chops. The bartender approached as the aide commented, “I also have a black belt.”
Evelyn nodded her thanks and continued asking Adam questions. One was, “What did you feel while being hoisted up and down?”
“A bit like bondage. The harness was very snug. I’m glad the fireman suggested I arrange my 'equipment' before fastening the harness. Very nice pressure.”
“Are you interested in bondage?”
Adam nodded, wondering.
“So are we. Would you like to come over to our apartment some night? Clara, my daughter here, is a great rigger.”
Adam slowly nodded.
“Also, I’d like to borrow you from your job for a while. I want someone to dig into contingency procedures, training, maintenance of chains of command, and things like that. Obviously procedures have not been kept up.” She was thinking of the ‘Not in service’ issue.
“I was worried I would be let go.”
“No. There are some loose ends I’d like to tie up.”
ST
Sorry folks, Not much bondage here. But perhaps Adam will go visiting.