Members of groups who are sponsoring two Syrian refugee families hold up signs welcoming their charges as they wait for the families to arrive at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015.
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Trudeau has invited the opposition leaders to join him and said “it will be a great day”. In fact, Canada has accepted 1.2 million refugees since World War II.
Trudeau announced the first plane’s arrival on Wednesday.
The first 10,000 refugees the government is aiming to bring to Canada by December 31 will nearly entirely be those with private sponsors set to welcome them to communities in every province.
Only a small number (32 per cent) of Canadians actually think that Syrian refugees will have a positive effect on Canada’s economy.
The first flight will arrive in Toronto on Thursday evening and another will land in Montreal on Saturday, Trudeau said in Parliament.
The transportation waivers, which give Syrian refugees free travel to Canada, is a crucial measure to decrease refugees’ financial burden, but Kwan and Dench believe that these waivers should be extended to all refugees.
Tie, alongside the President of Canadian Labour Congress Hassan Yussuff, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Perrin Beatty and Parliamentary Secretary to the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Arif Virani, spoke to reporters at a news conference on Parliament Hill about their organizations’ efforts to collaborate to assist thousands of refugees arriving this week and in the coming weeks. By contrast, a Bloomberg poll also conducted in November found that only 28% of the 1,002 US adults surveyed were in favor of allowing Syrian refugees into the United States without a religious-screening mechanism.
The flight left Beirut and travelled to Germany, where the military Airbus stopped for refuelling and a change of crew before landing in Toronto late Thursday night.
A Vietnamese Canadian group called Voice Canada is raising money to sponsor three Syrian refugee families. Again, private sponsors are responsible for finding suitable accommodation for the refugees they bring in.
Trudeau had made the 25,000-refugee target an important element of his campaign platform as early as last March and doubled down as Canada’s October election approached.
The government has however been criticised over its decision to exclude unaccompanied, heterosexual, single adult men from the programme over security concerns. Private groups will support them upon their arrival in Canada, CBC added, though the government will pay for their transportation, initial medical costs, and arrival expenses.
“This is a wonderful night where we get…to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily hard situations”.
The UN has been instrumental in Canada’s push to bring in Syrians, identifying refugees and referring them to Canadian officials after initial interviews.
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“How you will receive these people tonight will be something they will remember for the rest of their lives, but also I know something that you will remember for the rest of your lives”, Trudeau said.
