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By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – 3 hours ago
OTTAWA - With suitcases stacked on luggage carts and blue bags full of info from government agencies on top, 163 Syrians lined up at the Beirut airport Thursday to begin the long journey to Canada.
They boarded a military plane as the vanguard of 25,000 refugees the Liberal government wants to bring to Canada by the end of February.
Photos taken by the Canadian Forces at the airport point showed a mix of men and women, teens and young children, some being offered teddy bears by Canadian officials.
The flight left Beirut to travel to Germany, where the military Airbus was to stop for refuelling and a change of crew before heading on to Toronto.
All of the Syrians on board Thursday are being sponsored by private groups, many of whom had filed the paperwork months ago in order to bring in some of the estimated 4.3 million Syrians displaced by the ongoing civil war in that country.
But the sponsors will have to wait a while longer before they personally greet the new arrivals. The first Canadians the Syrians will meet upon landing at Toronto's Pearson airport will range from, perhaps, the prime minister, to a team of civil servants and border officers who will complete the final pieces of paperwork required.From there, 116 will head to new homes in the Toronto area. Another four will go to Windsor, Ont. Sponsors in Kelowna, B.C. will welcome four, three will go to Coquitlam, B.C. and one to New Westminster, B.C. Twenty are bound for Calgary, Alta., and the final 15 to Edmonton, according to statistics released Thursday by the Immigration department.
A second flight is set to arrive in Montreal on Saturday.
"We have great hopes for the success of this group of people that are arriving and their families as they build their new home here in Canada," said Arif Virani, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of immigration.
While Syrian refugees have been arriving with some regularity since the Liberals were sworn into office on Nov. 4, they've arrived on commercial flights. Thursday sees the first government aircraft return from a deployment specific to a program that began as a Liberal promise months ago.
Well before the election, the Liberals had called for Canada to increase its commitment to Syrian resettlement, suggesting back in March that 25,000 was their number. The Conservative government had initially pledged to take in 11,300 people by the end of 2018.
But during the election campaign, the Liberals put forward a more ambitious goal — the government would take in 25,000 people itself and work with private sponsors to bring in even more.
They later went further, saying they'd bring in that many people by the end of this year.
Work on that started the very day the Liberals won power, with companies such as Air Canada offering planes for the program. Once the first two military flights arrive, private chartered flights will shuttle the vast majority of the remaining Syrians to Canada.
It wasn't until the Liberals struck a cabinet subcommittee specifically designed to roll out the program that plans began to coalesce — and one of the first things they heard from their international partners was a plea to reconsider their original year-end deadline.
The Liberals broke the plan down into stages.
To meet the 25,000 goal, about 10,000 would be those who have private sponsors at the ready and in many cases, those files were already in the immigration system because of the previous Conservative commitments. Those would be the cases targeted for settlement by the end of the year. Private cases are easier because the support structure is already in place.
Then, a further 15,000 spaces would be reserved for government-assisted refugees, with the goal of bringing them in by the end of February.
Follow @StephanieLevitz on Twitter
They boarded a military plane as the vanguard of 25,000 refugees the Liberal government wants to bring to Canada by the end of February.
Photos taken by the Canadian Forces at the airport point showed a mix of men and women, teens and young children, some being offered teddy bears by Canadian officials.
The flight left Beirut to travel to Germany, where the military Airbus was to stop for refuelling and a change of crew before heading on to Toronto.
All of the Syrians on board Thursday are being sponsored by private groups, many of whom had filed the paperwork months ago in order to bring in some of the estimated 4.3 million Syrians displaced by the ongoing civil war in that country.
But the sponsors will have to wait a while longer before they personally greet the new arrivals. The first Canadians the Syrians will meet upon landing at Toronto's Pearson airport will range from, perhaps, the prime minister, to a team of civil servants and border officers who will complete the final pieces of paperwork required.From there, 116 will head to new homes in the Toronto area. Another four will go to Windsor, Ont. Sponsors in Kelowna, B.C. will welcome four, three will go to Coquitlam, B.C. and one to New Westminster, B.C. Twenty are bound for Calgary, Alta., and the final 15 to Edmonton, according to statistics released Thursday by the Immigration department.
A second flight is set to arrive in Montreal on Saturday.
"We have great hopes for the success of this group of people that are arriving and their families as they build their new home here in Canada," said Arif Virani, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of immigration.
While Syrian refugees have been arriving with some regularity since the Liberals were sworn into office on Nov. 4, they've arrived on commercial flights. Thursday sees the first government aircraft return from a deployment specific to a program that began as a Liberal promise months ago.
Well before the election, the Liberals had called for Canada to increase its commitment to Syrian resettlement, suggesting back in March that 25,000 was their number. The Conservative government had initially pledged to take in 11,300 people by the end of 2018.
But during the election campaign, the Liberals put forward a more ambitious goal — the government would take in 25,000 people itself and work with private sponsors to bring in even more.
They later went further, saying they'd bring in that many people by the end of this year.
Work on that started the very day the Liberals won power, with companies such as Air Canada offering planes for the program. Once the first two military flights arrive, private chartered flights will shuttle the vast majority of the remaining Syrians to Canada.
It wasn't until the Liberals struck a cabinet subcommittee specifically designed to roll out the program that plans began to coalesce — and one of the first things they heard from their international partners was a plea to reconsider their original year-end deadline.
The Liberals broke the plan down into stages.
To meet the 25,000 goal, about 10,000 would be those who have private sponsors at the ready and in many cases, those files were already in the immigration system because of the previous Conservative commitments. Those would be the cases targeted for settlement by the end of the year. Private cases are easier because the support structure is already in place.
Then, a further 15,000 spaces would be reserved for government-assisted refugees, with the goal of bringing them in by the end of February.
Thousands of Syrian refugees have already arrived, but the Liberals only count those who've landed since they took office on Nov. 4 as part of their commitment.
As of Dec. 8, that number was 464. The government says they have 12,538 applications currently in the system.Follow @StephanieLevitz on Twitter
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2users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down0users disliked this commentRichard • Report AbuseWarm and fuzzy.
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Lets everyone hug a refugee.
... More - S 54users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down3users disliked this commentStephan Asturi • Report Abuse
People have to earn their right to go into any country. It doesn't sit well with me that these "refugees" are hiding in different countries to escape the horrors going on in their own instead of fighting for their country to make it better and livable. Not only that but it makes things harder for... More
3 Replies - B 23users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down1users disliked this commentBlome • Report Abuse
Continuation of previous post..
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Have we seen other ethnic / religious groups at the airport welcoming their own ... More - W 40users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down2users disliked this commentWeiwei • Report Abuse
Prof. Baberowski noted, the BBC coverage of the migration crisis, that MAIN STREAM MEDIA outlets SKE their coverage with emotional images. He said:
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“They make policy with pictures of children, and women who have cracked voices and use emotion and resentment. This is very poor journalism we... More - B 42users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down2users disliked this commentBojan • Report Abuse
I am an immigrant but i came in Canada as a skilled worker.. it has been 4 years an in several occasions my mother was refused to come see me here.. she was refused a tourist visa and she is not even comming from a dangerous place ( Serbia ). Seems unfair! Since i am comming also from a war... More
1 Reply - M 119users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down6users disliked this commentMax • Report Abuse
I see homeless people sleeping on the streets of my city every day. People asking for spare change because they don't have two nickels to rub together. And these refugees come over here, get their apartment, their food, their clothes, and who knows what else, all at the expense of the Canadian... More
20 Replies - S 27users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down0users disliked this commentSlug • Report Abuse
If any regular person wants to legally immigrate to Canada the process of screening takes about two years. Also they need serious medical exams, prove they are secure financially and many many more.
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For these so called "refugees" it took two weeks for the whole process. Does it make any sense? - J 12users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down1users disliked this commentJ • Report Abuse
Let's see what people that DO speak for Islam have said about jihad.
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Majid Khadduri, a leading authority on a wide variety of Islamic subjects said this about jihad:... More - H 31users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down2users disliked this commentHonest • Report Abuse
Terrorism is caused by the verses of the Koran. There are literally over 100 verses in the Koran that teach terrorism. Every believer in he Koran is commanded (not requested) to murder every Jew, next is the Christian and if your either ant not one of the two your turn is coming soon if not... More
7 Replies - J 33users liked this commentPlease sign in to rate a Thumb UpPlease sign in to rate a Thumb Down2users disliked this commentJay Milton • Report Abuse
it is just crazy. All the other immigrants who followed the rules are now back of the line. And the head of the FBI just announced they have irrefutable evidence that ISIS is imbedding terrorists into the Syrian Refugees. Well I guess it is a matter of time before Shria law will be implemented... More
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